Do you think an ultrasonic bath can take off gold’s patina?

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask your opinion about an issue that I got with a watch that I got serviced recently.

I’ve bought a few months ago an omega 166.0117 in perfect shape. The case had a splendid rose/red tone gold patina everywhere (sorry I don’t have photos..). The problem with the watch was that the gasket liquidified and had to be changed (as seen in the picture below) along with a service. My watchmaker being sick he suggested me to go to one of his friends that is also a watchmaker. So I went there and dropped a few watches that needed a service with a note that the watches shouldn’t be polished nor having the dial touched (for precaution). Today I took back the watches, and everything is perfect apart that the 166.0117 does not have any patina left (which makes me a bit sad). At first I thought that the watchmaker may have polished the watch a bit. But then I realised that none of the other watches were touched. After thinking a bit about it I realised that the watch was certainly put in a ultrasonic bath and this would be the explanation of the watch losing its patina, could that be possible? (sorry if what I’m saying doesn’t make sense). I can also mention that the watch still has some microscopic scratches (as seen on the pictures below).


Here are the pictures of the watch :

Before :



After :


It’s mostly for curiosity that I’m asking as it’s not a big issue for me that the watch has losen it’s patina. But what I want to be sure is if I can trust the watchmaker as I have other watches that would need a service (still didn’t asked him what happened because I don’t want to annoy him asking ridiculous questions as he’s really a nice guy and would probably feel bad about it). So what do you think, am I correct considering that the ultrasonic cleaner is guilty for making the watch lose Its patina?


Thanks in advance for your precious opinions!

99.99% of the people prefer their gold to not be tarnished. You're an outlier. Just let it be and it will tarnish again.

And yes, ultrasound can clean gold becuase people use cleaning solutions in the ultrasound, it's not plain water.

I really loved the look, was quite special, I really regret not taking pics so I could show how it looked before 🤦

Yes, I’ll wait some years and hopefully it will look the same again 😉

Thanks for your comment!

That’s another option. I’ll probably kindly ask him next time I see him, it doesn’t cost anything.

Thanks for your help guys! And sorry again for asking these kind of weird questions.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer! So It’s probably due to the ultrasonic bath. Indeed, why would he have polished only one watch? Doesn’t really make sense.

Count me among the outliers: if someone were to remove the patina on this gold I would lose my temper (and be very tempted to skin them alive):

Many people on this forum constitute that 0.01%. 😀