The Breitling Watch Source Forums

My brother got a good deal for aerospace look like new, prev owner claimed it has some scratches and he removed himself however a close look on the case from the side it looks like out of shape I think could be possible it happen when e try to polish it by himself ? Can that be corrected when sending for servicing ? Is it worth to buy


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Some pictures would be good to see where the distortion has occurred.

Sounds like you don’t accept the previous owner’s assurances?

In all my time polishing watches, I have never come close to distorting a case out of shape by polishing. It would be very hard to do on any watch made from stainless I would think. Bezels, yes, that is possible and I have been guilty of doing this by accident in the past. Once again though, it takes a lot of energy to do it and only idiots like me are capable of such things. So seeing I am in the minority, I would be very surprised if polishing out scratches would be possible by anyone else.

Therefore, I would agree with you that it’s highly unusual and would need further clarification from the previous to indicate how polishing did the damage. Driving over it with a truck might be a good start to incur that sort of damage! But polishing!

Some other thoughts;
1. It is possible to change the appearance of a case by removing lots of damage at once. This can happen if a more rigorous approach to scratch eradication is necessary. I have seen cases attacked with stone cutters to try and lift out very deep scratches, only to have the facets or hard points of a case removed. The effect is to change the shape of the case.

2. Could it be a particular section of the case with dramatic changes of direction? Which appear on the face of it as possible damage? Check the corresponding side for similar or same hard points or swage lines. If they seem similar then there may not be any damage at all. If it’s a totally different shape due to pushers or crown shoulders, etc then this harder to tell. cna you check against another Aerospace?

3. If the watch functions correctly in every regard, then the damage might not be distortion at all. I have seen case damage that interferes with bezel operation or makes crystal replacement very difficult, but not that you would notice it from looking at the watch. This is more likely to occur on base metal watches that stainless anyway.

Did the previous owner advice your brother about the damage before purchase? If not, is there any chance of a refund? I guess he would have suggested that it has 'some polishing marks' or some such generalised description, right?

JIm

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Jim

"You have Control".

The Aerospace is made from titanium but this still sounds pretty unlikely. As P51 says, pics would help us say if anything was amiss.

Not very likely that titanium would have been polished, although it is perhaps more susceptible to damage as Breitling only uses Grade 2. Still seems pretty far fetched without evidence of an obvious ding as noted.

I absolutely agree with Roff. Having polished Titanium to remove scratches in the past, I can atest to two things. One, it is easier to scratch titanium than s/s, and two, it does not resist grindig any better than s/s.

Jim

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Jim

"You have Control".