Handwashing is very important.

JimInOz

Especially when they have 50 years of accumulated dust/oil/crud.

Main hands.

Minute Recorder Hand

and Minute hand.

As you can see, they are rather dirty and have slight corrosion blisters along the edges. They're from a Landeron based chrono I'm servicing and when I went to put them back on I checked them out and went "Ugh!, no way!".

So how do you clean hands as delicate and rare as these. The risks associated with mechanical cleaning were too great, so my solution was a solution, Town Talk Silver Cleaning Solution in fact.

I had a 100ml tube jar and filled it with the cleaner, placed the hands into the jar and put it in the ultrasonic bath for 5 minutes. Then the solution was poured off and successive fills of distilled water added and allowed to rinse off the solution. The whole lot was then poured gently into a 125micron funnel filter, then laid on a Kimwipe to dry in the sun.

This is the crud trapped in the filter.

I think they turned out quite well.

My next big decision.
Do I attempt to clean the dial. From arm's length it looks OK, but under a scope it looks pretty bad. If I knew most of the spots and blemishes would come off I'd try the cleaning solution, but I'm not sure so I think I'll just have to live with a soft brush and a puffer to clean it up.

JimInOz

👍
I used some silicone tip buds to remove the larger dirt/grit specks.
Followed that up by using a fine sable brush (cleaned before use) to dust off anything loose remaining on the dial. That's as far as I was willing to go.

On an aside, a PSA.
I often see people recommending the use of Q-Tips/cotton buds/cotton swabs for watch cleaning operations.
I would strongly discourage this unless it's only limited to specific areas on specific finishes, e.g.: the back of stainless steel cases to remove crud prior to opening.
Cotton swabs have to use some form of bonding agent to keep the cotton in a ball (or point) in correct shape on the stick and this, together with the cotton fibres, I've found to be abrasive enough to cause scratches in softer surfaces.

I would never use them on crystals, dials, hands, plated cases or plated movement parts.

Note: Just my opinion/experience.

JimInOz

Inside of crystals can be cleaned with window cleaner and a soft sable brush, softest bristles you can find (ladies makeup brush).
Do both sides then rinse in filtered tap water or distilled water and shake dry.
Final finish with isopropyl alcohol and microfibre cloth.

JimInOz

Inside of crystals can be cleaned with window cleaner and a soft sable brush, softest bristles you can find (ladies makeup brush).
Do both sides then rinse in filtered tap water or distilled water and shake dry.
Final finish with isopropyl alcohol and microfibre cloth.

Aroxx

Thank you, I will note this down. I just used the cotton swab and 70% isopropyl alcohol I had on hand. Also wasn’t thinking about reaction with AR coating but think I’m safe on this one. I was playing very fast and loose with this watch as I didn’t particularly care if I ruined it. Here is the watch/crystal I’m talking about.
https://omegaforums.net/threads/what-happened-to-this-crystal.158466/#post-2175186

ken_hodson

@JimInOz The hands have come out beautifully. Can I ask are they made of brass? Does this silver cleaning solution trick work on all metals? Are there any metals you can't use it on?

ken_hodson

Gold plated steel?

Aroxx

I also just recently learned the hard way not to use cotton swabs, specifically on the inside of the crystal for me. I wanted some abrasiveness but some fibers got stuck between the crystal and case. I was able to get most out but I think one is still jammed under there but not visible. Luckily not an expensive piece.

Archer

This is what I use for removing lint from dials, hands, and the inside of crystals.