thinking about bleaching a modern speedy to get that faded / ghost / grey bezel. What do you think am i crazy? I love the look of a off color bezel sort of like a vintage black on black watch or something like the hodinkee oris that just came out. I just bleached my skx009 and really love how it turned out. Worst case scenario i can just source a new bezel??

Heres a pic of my skx just cuz pictures rock

 

I have a nicely faded Speedmaster Pro service bezel if you're interested. I'll send you a photo by pm.

 

Its a simple process.

Like all good simple processes its easy to mess right up.

A lot of dealers like to bleach telemeter bezels and stick them on basket case 2998's and go "Honestly I found it like that" Wankers.

Some times the bleach really dries them out, but the two times I tried it I used 100% bleach and checked it every 3 minutes until it started to go, then every 30 seconds.

Checking means lifting the bezel out of the bleach and dropping into a lot of clean water and rinsing it, and then drying it and looking.

Wearing gloves AND eye protection.

Show us how you get on!

 

PM away ! I'm more interested in just changing the color rather than a "vintage bezel".

 

Well as you can see the process worked well on my skx. Only problem is the blue fades way faster than red. I love how the color softened up. Stock bezel is very metallic / dark. Its almost like Navy // Red . Now its more a color I like … it actually looks a lot like the tudor GMT bezel color right now.

But This is a good idea right ? a 180 dollar watch is one thing my 4000 prized watch … At least its just a bezel ??? . I need some confirmation here…

 

You do whatever you want, it’s your watch
I personally wouldn’t do it, but I think your Seiko turned out great!

 

My big fear is that it will damage the bezel beyond fading. Also i dont want to damage the watch removing / installing the bezel

 

Don't do it then

 

Well.. will it damage?

 

It might. Buy a bezel insert on the eBay and experiment with it. Original would be as a backup.

 

Its more fun if theres an element of danger!!

 

Was an 180 dollar watch.... not anymore.

 

Riding on the edge mate

 

I mean i got it brand new for peanuts. Im not worried about the value! Obviously different story for speedmaster... its worth more than what i paid for it already

 

They just went out of production and what is left new is spiking.

 

30 years in the Royal Navy did the job nicely on my bezel....

 

Buying cheap eBay insert might not give you a good result indication due to different manufacture.

When I did it the results were controllable and I stopped when I reached the desired result.

A speedmaster bezel did not used to be a valuable thing. The. I just sold one on EBay for £181 which was more than I expected.

 

Got any pics of your results?

 

Crazy? Who knows, it is your watch, but you are definitely not patient. Let time and wear do what they do to your Speedmaster. If you must go this route I would absolutely purchase a properly faded bezel and keep the original one. You are likely to want it down the road.

 

@RazorFrazer Could you please tell me how did you do that?