As seen by the before pictures, this watch was given to Roy by Dale. I am certain of this as I checked and no one else in 1952 was named Dale. Or since.
Anyways the thing had lots of scratches and dings in the acrylic crystal and was grungy from cooking beans on camp fires out in the desert back in the day, along with cleaning off the horse shit from his boots before strumming a few tunes and crawling into the sleeping bag under the stars.
First thing was to mask off the watch so I could sand the acrylic crystal to remove the deep marks then polish her clear.
Kind of a pain in the butt to get the masking tape to cooperate and go 'round in a circle but once done I can gently sand the crystal smooth, keeping the 400 grit sand paper flat and even so the crystal doesn't become optically distorted.
Once that's done, next is dusting off the watch and giving the crystal a good long polishing while the masking tape is still on. This keeps the case from getting rubbed down by the polish as well as keeping compound from caking up around the crown. I usually polish in straight lines, but periodically alternate the clock position of the watch so things come out even and again to avoid optical distortion. Usually the results are satisfying. Once done I remove the tape and clean off the watch with a damp cloth. However this watch had so much prairie grunge on it I used alcohol and a small paint brush to get toe goop out of those hard to get places. Finally I used one of those jewelry polishing cloths impregnated with mild compound to spiff up the case. Not too bad for a 69 year old watch. She still has some specks on the inside of the crystal and some loose particles on the dial so next time I'm near the watch maker's shop I will ask him to pop off the crystal and blow or rodico the thing clean. The crown obviously is not original but for what I paid for this thing I don't care
😁
