"Repolished" What does it mean to you?

I don't know the answer to those questions, but it'd be the first one for me, a no-brainer.

As you all know, I wouldn't recognise a re-polished watch if it kicked me up the arse. Having said that I've screwed my face up into a £5 loupe, on more than one occasion, trying to work out if I could make that claim with my own 'old' Speedmaster. We've had it 50 years.

1) STS told me they cleaned it, but didn't re-polish it in 2016

2) I know I haven't re-polished it since I got it in 2003

3) Did my Dad have it re-polished between 1969 and 2003. I'll never know, but I can't remember hearing him say "I better not re-polish my watch, because no one will want to buy it in the next century!"

4) It's got a few service marks inside the case back. Did any of them re-polish it over the decades? I don't know!

So there you have an example of a family owned watch that has a known history spanning 50 years. It has spent those years on my Father's wrist or in my cupboard. Still I have no way of knowing if it has ever been re-polished? 😕

What do you say if it’s been polished several times? Over polished?

I'm not a collector, I have no plans to be a collector but I am working on putting a small collection of watches together for my own pleasure and enjoyment.

I have no family heirlooms to come my way, I am not going to be given a watch that is 10, 15, 20 or 25+ years old, everything I am going to buy is going to be because I like it. I don't plan of selling any watches or buying any vintage watches (far too scary a field for me), I want my watches to look good, when they go for a service they will go to the OM as I think that is the best place for them to go. Why do I think that, the watch gets serviced, it gets cleaned, it gets a polish, it comes back to me looking god and running sweetly, it also has a guarantee on the work carried out.

To me I don't want a watch that looks battered and bruised, and please don't take this the wrong way, old and unloved.

Okay, okay, I know, many watch owners will be happy for their watch to show its experiences over the course of its life and will be happy to wear those life scars with pride. Now to a degree I am too but if a watch can be cleaned and polished and made to sparkle that bit more, then is that so wrong?

I have a watch due for a service, my Seamaster Diver 2010 vintage, it will go to Omega in the next few weeks for a bit of tic, I hope that my watch comes back looking a bit sharper, a bit more accurate and with a bit of sparkle.

Maybe I haven't had my watches long enough to understand the polishing / cleaning issue, maybe I just prefer a polished watch.

I realize I am a rank amateur. So many people say they can tell 99% of the time if case has been polished or 99% of time if dial has been relumed. I am NOT one of these people. A blatant relume or blatant case polish is just that, blatantly obvious. However, a subtle polish or well done relume can be very hard (for me) to tell. Polishing cases was the standard of care until relatively recently, so I assume a light polish was done but don"t really care if the case looks clean and correct. But remember, sharp lines alone do not prove the case of a case unpolished!

I would bet the majority of times a vintage watch is described as unpolished, it is simply not true. I totally "get" asking @Spacefruit if case was unpolished because non experts, who may be a little insecure, know and respect his unique experience with these. Photos will always show significant polishing but often will not show minor polishing.

So, I think we all need to lighten up a bit on this unpolished business.

To me anything using a lathe means polishing.
This in an effort to brush off/buff scratches or create a sharper edge.
Whether light or more harsher.

I personally prefer to see the natural addition of wear over time.

Ultrasonically cleaned to remove residue etc. I like.

An interesting question.

I recently bought a 145.022.69 from @Spacefruit but don't believe I was guilty of asking if it had been polished. It is a 50 year old watch it would be pretty remarkable if it had never been gently polished during a service over that period. However, I bought the watch because in my view it still retained its original shape, it had a very clean dial great bezel and known provenance. I never intended to buy a 145.022.69 but it was the fact that this looked like a superior example that attracted me to it and made me decide to buy it.

So unless a watch has spent all its life in a safe, I assume that it will have been polished but this does not mean that it has to have been machined to within an inch of its life.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that @Spaecfruit was selling the one I bought because he had a better example !!! 😲 😀

See this thread:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/polishing-a-speedmaster-case-insert-horrified-expression-here.30014/

'Repolished'?

Oh the problems we face in life.

I once told a girl I met in a bar I worked as a rocket polisher.
Kept us entertained for hours.

Am all for repolishing.

Has this one been polished or is it just a cloudy night?

Looks extremely foggy, very dense fog. But, as the observatory is on a hill it could be a low cloud base as fog usually forms at a lower level 😁