A German told me that a watch I'm looking at was serviced and that the dial was cleaned. I asked in what way it was cleaned and he told me "...just dipped in a silver bath – no other treatment!".

Perhaps it is a strange translational issue. Does somebody understand what he's talking about?

Dial:

 

Probably some sort of a liquid silver cleaner designed to allow an item to be dipped. Goddards and Hagerty (as well as many brands available at your supermarket) make it available as a fork cleaner. But it might work on a metal dial, as well. At your risk, by the way,

 

Not sure if this helps you in any way, but a “silver bath”, or “Silberbad” in German, would usually be a mixture of water, salt and baking soda that silver is dipped into for a couple minutes. I’ve done that with silver cutlery and it’s clean and shiny afterwards - I can’t imagine doing that to a dial, though. Even if the dial is solid silver, surely the printing would suffer from the aggressive baking soda (sodium bicarb)?

 

If the printing is baked enamel, then a bath might not harm it like regular tampography dial.

 

Yes, most silver dials on vintage are quite robust and can be cleaned rather aggressively without damage.

 

Sounds better than a golden shower.

 

Very interesting! Didn’t know that. Well, in that case, the “Silberbad” might have actually been what we were thinking.

As a collector of mainly 50s Omegas with those delicate dials the thought of dipping a dial into a bath with chemicals still makes my neck hair stand up though.

 

I'd be very curious to see a before picture of the dial.

 

I have access to some, not actually mine, more "hers".

 

It's a lovely dial. I would like to see some more pictures of that watch.

 

I appreciate your responses. Should I receive it, I will gladly take more photos of the watch.