Hello everyone. Posting to share my experience with cleaning up marks on a ceramic bezel insert.

I recently purchased this Seamaster 300M ETNZ used, and while it was in excellent condition overall, there were some fairly prominent, obvious marks on the ceramic bezel. I thought, "Wait a second. There aren't supposed to be scratches on a ceramic bezel." So after a bit of research I learned that what I was seeing weren't scratches, but marks on the ceramic left by whatever had come into contact with the bezel insert. The prevailing thought was that these marks could be removed with a regular pencil eraser. That prevailing thought seems to be correct. Here's my result after about 10 to 15 minutes of work with an eraser.



You can still see the marks somewhat, but most of the marks have been removed. In regular light without magnification these marks are as good as gone. I cannot for the life of me see these marks when I look at my watch under normal circumstances in good lighting. You can see in the closeup view in daylight that they're quite faint.

I will continue to work on these marks with an eraser from time to time, just to see if I can make the marks disappear completely. (Personal challenge!)

Anyway, I felt compelled to share just in case anyone out there is wondering how to easily restore the appearance of a marked up matte ceramic bezel insert, and for anyone who wanted to see an actual result using the simple pencil eraser technique. Well, and also to check to see if I'm correct in my assumption that there is no actual scratching going on here!

Does anyone have any other ideas or techniques to share for cleaning up a matte ceramic bezel insert?

 

Actually, I seriously thought I was the only the one that used a good quality eraser to remove marks from watches. I've purchased some dirty vintage pieces in the past and the eraser was what worked best without leaving any marks on the cases etc.

 

A great tip , this is worth remembering as a first step in removing a stubborn mark that may not actually be a scratch.

 

Omega has a specific erasing pen for this purpose - part number is 516W000543. It is a plastic holder with a rubberized abrasive refill in it.

You may be able to buy the pen and the refill from an OB, but a while ago on another forum I posted information on what the refill (abrasive) actually is:

516W000666 | POLISHING STICK 7129-4-F

The Omega part number is 516W000666, but it's the part at the end that caught my eye.

7129-4-F looks like a Bergeon part number, so I checked their site and searched for 7129:

https://shop.bergeon.ch/Catalogue/PD...00%20E%20F.pdf

So if you open the pdf in question in that link, and look down to the second page, you will find polishing sticks. 7129 is the product number, the "4" is the diameter in mm, and "F" is for fine.

I have since verified that the abrasive refill that actually does the work is made by Cratex.

Cheers, Al

 

Awesome. I learn so much on this forum. Thanks to all of you for posting this.

 

An eraser for scuffs and marks? My wife spends so much on vanishing creams, maybe I'll buy her that instead!

 

Do you know what this is between the 2-3 hour marker in the bezel insert? And do you know what i could potentially use to remove it? Eraser doesn’t work for me

 

that was very useful