What is it, how does it work, and can this be done in Brisbane?
I have a watch with a deep scratch on the case, and thought it might be better to do this than have it buffed down...


https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=319094

https://cfj.com.au/laser-welding

Thoughts from the forum?

 

Someone adds new metal to the case via a weld, then re-cuts the case to as close to factory spec as possible. I have no idea who does that in Brisbane.

 

Amazing , if you find out let us know never new it was possible was always told to buff it out!
(by the way the ninja scroll avatar, the starcraft name and your love of watches) we probably are from the same Era!

 

haha thanks.

regarding the laser welding, there is a youtbe show called "whats on my desk WOMD" by Roman some-body. he mentions that his watch makers always add metal when they polish a case so there is no such thing as over polishing. ill look for the show and try and link the exact episode

 

I assume there is a "must declare laser welding" when selling a watch you've done this to, yeah?

What is the view in the community of a laser welded watch?
Obviously not original, but is a laser welded watch preferable to a polished watch?
Or is it as franken as a pieced together watch?

Curious.

 

I don't think there's a lot of stigma attached to laser welding in particular. I also don't think it needs to be distinguished from polishing--it's usually done as part of (or prior to) polishing. It would suffice to say "case has been polished" in a For Sale ad as far as I'm concerned. Some people like polished cases, some don't.

 

Cool thanks for the feedback. I can see it being much simpler to just acknowledging "polished" even versus "laser welded and polished". I suspect a lot of the community is less aware of laser welding and it might just confuse an FS post.

If that is deemed the acceptable approach. I wonder if anyone differs on that.

 

I guess *most* folks would be happy with a polished watch, that is not over polished. laser welding avoids this.
there is a video the pontiff put out a few years ago when he sent his AP RO in for a service (to AP) and was quoted that the clasp required laser welding + polishing. so even AP utilizes this technology...

 

Maybe not in Brissy, but I think @photo500 now has laser welding facilities.

Express Post 500gram packet is not much to cough up for getting your watch from Brissy to Perth.

Check with https://www.lewiswatchco.com/ to see if he can help you out.

 

Know a guy in Darwin that does a good job. Going fishing with him on the weekend can ask him ?

Last job he done looks good

 

Iwc does this when they service their watches ( if needed)

 

I've seen quite a lot of laser welding as used in the repair of injection moulding tooling. While the metals can be polished back to a perfectly matching surface there is pretty much always a visible line between the old material and the new. I think it's just discolouration from the heat of the process but it is almost always there. A real artist might be able to minimize it by using a finer bead of weld, we're talking about 0.005" here, but you have to find such a guy first. He'll also need to know the make up of the metal as he must pretty much match it for a seamless weld.

 

I have some laser welding done a few weeks ago on a mark II, came out really nice!

Why live with a deep scratch if you don’t have to?

View attachment 740244

This is the work of @Tmorehouse51

 

There is a really good write up on the topic here:

https://www.thefabricator.com/article/laserwelding/welding-small-and-growing

 

Look at here for examples of laser welding watch cases and lap polishing.

Edit: lol, it's the same example from the OP link. If you are curious of case refinishing using these techniques, there are many other examples in the link I provided.

 

Like any tool there are legitimate uses and those that are not so legitimate. Laser welding has been around for a while, and the machines are coming down in price. I have a friend who is a goldsmith who owns one, and it was about $30k (he bought it maybe 2 years ago). He uses it for jewellery repairs and for tacking parts in place in preparation for soldering, and he has said that it allows him to complete jobs much more easily, with better quality, and less time, so for him it was a good investment.

For the watch world, it can be used to restore cases certainly, and personally I do think it should be listed specifically that this kind of work was done. At least I would want to know...

Through the watchmaker grapevine I hear things about places buying up beat up vintage watches, building up the cases using laser welding, and then polishing/lapping the case to like new status. They then artificially age the cases and sell the watches at premium prices as "never polished" and that is one reason why such a description holds absolutely no weight with me.

It's a valuable tool to being back damaged cases, but the downside is it further muddies the waters with regards to what is "all original" or not. It's not the only thing that does this, as a skilled relumer can recreate original lume to a very high standard, so ask yourself if you would want to know if the lume was original or not when you think of this question about laser wedling...

Cheers, Al

 

thats what im talking about, looks amazing

 

awesome!

 

What's the cost like for something like that ? and can it be done on gold or titanium ?

 

Yes can be done in gold. Had mine done by Michael Young of HK.