The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Hi everyone,

Seller says this top time 815 watch is all original and never polished. The watch is stunning. Can anyone explain to me what that green stuff is on the pushers and why they look like they’re “peeling” to a copper color? The green stuff and peeling are also noticeable from the front. Also why there seems to be rust on the lugs of the watch and behind the caseback? Isn’t stainless steel not supposed to rust or turn green? I would love to learn more.

If I purchase the watch is there anyway to fix these “issues”? Or should the watch be kept original? I don’t want to ruin the watch or do something that I’ll regret but the green moldy stuff isn’t aesthetically pleasing to look at either!

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge with someone relatively new to vintage watches!

It will just clean off when serviced.

Should the watch be given to Breitling to service? They won’t polish it?

The brown that I’m seeing on the pushers is not due to peeling but is instead above the steel?

I think you need to spend some time learning about watches, how they are made, and what to look for in buying vintage watches before you buy something. The watch you’ve posted is made of steel. What do you think is “peeling” from steel?

You can search the forum about sending a vintage watch to Breitling. Search function is top right and then select the vintage forum.

Thank you for the advice. I know the watch is made of steel but that doesn’t necessarily mean the pushers haven’t been replaced by something that wasn’t steel. Maybe they’re plated in chrome and the chrome is coming off. Similarly a gold plated watch gold comes off or “peels” off.

The green stuff is called Verdigris and usually appears where the metal involved has an element of copper, brass or bronze. In the case of the watch pushers this may be the pusher tubes which may well be brass based. The pusher tops will be steel - any plating on pushers wears off relatively early (see any vintage gold plated chronograph). Although verdigirs is considered the copper equivalent of rust most of the green gunk on jewellery is verdigirs stained skin debris and does not mean the metal is about to disintegrate. As buddman says it usually cleans off easily. The brown discolouration on the steel case is more skin debris and general dirt contamination only in this instance the debris is acidic and collects in parts of the watch that normally is not cleaned, this over a long period of time causes some corrosion even to the steel case. When cleaned off it may leave a black stain on the steel which can only be cleaned off with polishing (not advised).

Wow. What a great response. Thank you so much for the thorough explanation. It was definitely an enjoyable and educational read!