Hi all,

I really like the appeal of a "Ghost Bezel", but on the internet, there is a lot of information concerning "Bleached Bezels". Since I didn't want to overpay for a bezel that you can potentially make in 10 minutes I decided to do the experiment by myself. I was quite surprised by the outcome...

For this experiment, I used a 082SU1589 Speedmaster bezel, Glorix Bleach, and a bowl.

I put the bezel in this bowl covered in bleach for 180 seconds, washed it off using water and looked at the result. I have repeated this process 6 times. This resulted in the following bezel.
You can clearly see that the fading of this bezel isn't as appealing as some other Speedmaster bezels.

I have decided to share this information for educational purpose. You can use my result as a reference to compare it with some other bezels in case you ever want to buy a ghost bezel.

Left bezel is the bleached one

I'll post a picture on a Speedmaster Tommorow

 

*Educational alert* to any newb who reads, this is what to avoid when you see a bezel or watch on eBay or elsewhere

 

@Walviskroket you're aware that from now on ΩF is watching you, aren't you?

 

That is the reason I decided to share it!

 

This can feel like a sketchy type of thing to put on the internet, but I think it is a good exercise in differentiating bleached bezels from naturally aged bezels. There are already countless videos on how to do this on the internet, so if someone wants to learn to deceive, the info is out there. We might as well try to learn to differentiate them the best we can.

The biggest red flag for bleached bezels that I have seen is the evenness of the fading, on an otherwise undamaged bezel. It seems that most legitimate ghost bezels (at least, I think they're legit) fade more towards the edges, with the inner edge being more protected from the protruding crystal. Many also seem to age unevenly, even around the perimeter. Naturally it seems like a bezel which has seen circumstances which caused it's varnish to deteriorate would have also have signs of normal wear-and-tear.

Because the process is so easy, and can be done by virtually everyone, I don't think it would be that hard to fake even more convincingly. For this reason I don't think that we should place additional value on ghosted bezels.

 

Thanks god, the outcome of that process is bad enough to still be easily spotted as a fake.

I personally do value an authentic and naturally faded bezel hence that artificial thing makes me scream.

 

I am still quite sure that there is several different natural phenomena that can turn a black bezel to a faded one. Of course, environement (wind, salt, water, UV, erosion etc...) but i think also that there is a red/ox reaction between some paint used at that time leading to a bluehish / grey-Blue fading.

 

Lets see some real ghosts to compare. 40 years of rubbing on a cuff of a shirt did this:

 

My 105.002:

 

That fake ghost doesn't look half bad

 

this is a ghost Watch !!

 

I like to refer to it as my Zombie

 

Love this one ! So homogeneous

 

Not sure if we can call it ghost ...

 

nope !

 

Ghost or nor ghost, I sure do like blue bezels with a tropical dial to boot

 

this is mine...with some natural scarfs

 

I always assumed mine was a 'geniune' fade, but have also always wondered how come in a relatively young Speedmaster (from the early 80s)...