Reply With QuoteIf it was me?
1) Live with it
2) Buy/use a watch case to keep it in when not wearing it
It had to happen one day. On returning home I fould my cat had knocked over a glass & sent my 2 month old Longines Legend Diver flying putting a chip on the side near the lug. to say im pretty gutted is an understatement.
Apart from strangling the cat,I can only see 3 options, living with it as to be honest its not that noticable when on.
Selling it at a lesser price(not sure how much to value it seeing as the rest of it is mint & only a couple of months old
Or & this is what I could do with some help on is having someone replace the case only. Any ideas on the costs of having this done.
If it was me?
1) Live with it
2) Buy/use a watch case to keep it in when not wearing it
Bad luck mc5.
These things happen from time to time and hindsight is a fine thing. No use saying "if only.........."
Think I'd just live with it
OR
Buy a new watch and learn from your misfortune to take more care of it.
Now don't blame the cat lol.
That is actually repairable - it can be laser filled with new material and re-polished to be (probably) invisible. I cant recommend anyone personally, but Russell Talerman of London advertise specifically this service - might be worth sending them an email and asking how much it would cost ;)
See here for info on how it's done;
http://www.equationoftime.com/forums...our-watch-case
Ouch!
A dog would never have done that
Is the cat ok??!
Wow some great work there. Ill bear them in mind.Originally Posted by Cirrus
haha he'll live
Live with the damage and get rid of the cat!!
Joking aside it doesn't look too bad on the wrist but seeing the results of the laser welding (particularly the RO) it might be worth considering, depending on cost of course.
It's hard to tell from the photo how deep it is...what did the watch hit?
The other option is to self polish/round off the chip edges and live with it.
Sell the cat to pay for the repair... it's only fair.
Oh, bad luck MC5! Reminds me of a watch I bought a few years ago - an absolutely beautifully refinished Omega Bumper Automatic from 1954. The watch had travelled by post all the way from Canada. I excitedly opened the box and picked the watch from within. I examined it for about a minute and put it down on the surface in the kitchen. I turned my back for literally three seconds and when I turned back around, one of our cats had decided to 'bat' it off the side, whereupon it fell onto the stone floor, cracking the crystal and dislodging the minute hand completely. Luckily, it was very easily repaired by a local watchmaker.
As others have said, your watch looks as though some gentle refinishing is the order of the day. It shouldn't be a problem but, is still an annoyance.
- - - Updated - - -
Are we allowed to sell cats on SC?
That's life. Live with it.
Gray
Keep it, and carry on enjoying wearing it. Hard to tell how big the dent is, but it doesn't look that bad.
Think I can guess what 'leather' your next strap will be made out of though
Probably about a mm deep. Ive got some cape cod ill give it a going over with that, wish I wasn't so fussy sometimes & just let it go.
I've got SEVEN cats (!) and they've never done anything like this....yet :)
Give the cat a stern talking to. Cut his rations for a week and buy an inferior brand of cat food.
Like all loyal felines he will be knocking over stuff in one of your neighbours houses before you can say
meeeoooowwwwww
I dont think this is all the cat's fault, after all, why were you keeping your watch in a glass?
Cape Cod on this would be like boring through a mountain with a carrot, it won`t even touch it. This needs serious attention using coarse grades of abrasive or a stone.
If the OP PMs me I may be able to help; despite being stacked out with watch jobs I`m a sucker for a sob story; he's been unlucky with this and I can imagine how pissed off he feels.
Scratches and dings are often not as deep as they look. The metal ploughs up at the sides and protrudes, giving an impression of greater depth. There's no way it'll be 1mm deep, but it might give the impression that it is!
I`m not claiming I can get rid of this totally but I could make it a lot less noticable. Often it is possible to remove significant amounts of metal without it being noticable, it all depends on the watch and the position of the damage. The laser welding option would be the best but I think it will be expensive.
One problem with big chunky modern watches is the sheer weight of the things. When they fall and hit something there's more energy to dissipate and consequently the damage is greater. This also affects movements more; dropping a heavy watch is more likely to do damage than dropping a light one.
Paul
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This, or.......
.....this...... http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ighlight=laser
F.T.F.A.
pm sent Paul
Unlucky! don't take it out on the poor pussy, put your watches back in the box when not on wrist! i can also vouch for the quality of Pauls work, see this thread below, just look what he did to this Tissot for me!
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ot+restoration
ktmog6uk
marchingontogether!
I'd leave it, you'll laugh about telling the story in time to come and it won't be noticeable on the wrist.
Battle scar.
I'd keep it, but if it bothers you, get the metal repaired/blended slightly.
i would keep that as it is.
i was not very pleased to find my small seconds diver in the bed of my dog, with a rottweiler fang shaped ding in the bezel and covered in dog slobber. dissapointing but not the end of the world and to be fair, i shouldnt have left it within her reach (twice!)
That was my first thought too, but then I am a huge cat fan.
Adds character, I reckon. Dings and bashes are all part of the process. But I would think that - I run old Russian motorcycles.
i would try living with it and seeing how that went to be honest
not the biggest fan of cats myself, or dogs, or anything that messes in the house, brings in fleas or does things like you've just suffered
i feel your pain
I HATE CATS.
That is all.
I only came in here on the chance there'd at least be a picture of a cat (bloodied or no).
Any chance?
Well. I have 7. DEAL WITH IT ;)
Yes. Seven. Really
+1 on battle damage. And when the cat's gone you'll have a story and something to remember it by.
Mind you, the results of that laser welding are pretty damned impressive.
BTW I have two cats, one chilled, one insane. Wouldn't be without them.....
:)
cats are great, but I do try and keep the cat and the child away from watches, both seem to be quite obsessed with playing & biting shiny things...
in some respects repairing a slightly damaged watch you intend to keep wearing is just a count down the next calamity.... personally i'd wait a year (or longer) and get all the little marks and dings professionally sorted out, then maybe the same again in another year...
(I scratched my sub clasp within 48hrs of ownership - damn ali laptop)
with watches as soon as they land you gotta decide, is it a wearer or watch box queen, because wabi will arrive on a wearer....
but imho that's why we buy 'em (usually)
I reckon that if the movement was removed the metal that's been pushed outwards could be moved mostly back in to place with a very small hammer, then something like 1500 grade wet and dry paper wrapped around a wooden dowel to polish it up..
Personally, i'd live with it!
I bought a lovely Seiko dive watch off fleabay, it was cheap but being the clumsy git that I am, within thirty minutes of strapping it on, I bashed it on the radiator as I walked through from the kitchen to the dining room!
I was livid as it scratched the crystal right across!!, I then felt relieved as it was the watches first 'Wabi'! and I wouldn't have to worry about making it look hammered!
I have a thing about buying/wearing watches that are immaculate and prefer to buy them already beat up a bit
John
MAN UP !
Scars of life - enjoy!
“Don’t look back, you’re not heading that way.”
Ditto and pigeons, the few the better and even better if there were none.
Did it fall onto the edge of an axe...?
I have no idea, its was on my cabinet & found it on my carpet. So it could only of hit the edge of the glass top cabinet. Anyway its been sent for some tlc now, hopefully have it back within a week.
The watch is heading my way for some TLC.
As far as I know, it's a polished finish......that helps a lot in refinishing it. If it was brushed that would be more difficult to blend/match to the the rest of the watch.
Paul
Posted earlier Paul. Do your best
You must be one sick puppy
It,s all part of owning watches mate, sh1t happens, enjoy the watch the pain will go away
It had to happen one day. On returning home I fould my cat had knocked over a glass & sent my 2 month old Longines Legend Diver flying putting a chip on the side near the lug. to say im pretty gutted is an understatement.
Apart from strangling the cat,I can only see 3 options, living with it as to be honest its not that noticable when on.
Selling it at a lesser price(not sure how much to value it seeing as the rest of it is mint & only a couple of months old
Or & this is what I could do with some help on is having someone replace the case only. Any ideas on the costs of having this done.
Out of interest are you single and living on your own?
Just an update. I sent the watch off to Paul (walkerwek1958) on here, who did a fantastic job on it in double quick time. I cant recommend him highly enough maybe he can explain what he did better than me. It looks as good as new. Here are some before & afters
Excellent work!
I'm going to have to send my watches to Paul for refinishing in the future!
Fortunately the damage wasn`t as deep as it looked; the scratch was more of a scrape, and the metal had 'ploughed up' making it look worse. Probably around 100- 150 microns deep when I`d cleaned off the raised metal, if that. Hardest part of the job was NOT being able to take the back off and removing the crown; it's a new watch under makers warranty and I'd agreed not to open it up. This meant that it had to be masked very thoroughly around the crown....in fact it ended up covered in masking tape except for the damaged lug!
Next step was to rub the damaged area down using 600 grit wet 'n' dry, working up to a line of tape a couple of mm away from the crown.....it would've been much easier with the crown out. Using the curvature of the lug to good effect I was able to remove enough metal from the area to 'lose' the damage, whilst keeping the edge sharp and the lug side flat. Abrasive paper MUST be placed around a fairly stiff block when doing this, otherwise it'll not look right. What you don`t do is work just on the scratch itself; doing this will create a 'crater' in the metal and it'll show.
The job was finished using 800 grit to blend everything in and ensure no 'lines' would show when the watch was repolished, followed by 1000grit, working closer to the crown to blend everything in. Next step was 1200 grit used wet, then 1500, then 2000, finally 3000, inspecting under a bright light to check for 'ripples' or signs of work. Metal polish on a leather buff stick was used to get a semi-shine and remove all abrasive marks. At this stage the whole lug was being worked, not just the damaged area.
Finally, when I was happy, it was finished on a buffing wheel followed by jewellers rouge on a soft mop. Also took a few more scratches from the rest of the watch to get it looking like brand new again. There's no 'softening' of the edges compared to the other lugs, due mainly to the hand-finishing techniques. Only the final finish was done with the polishing machine, and that's the key to keeping the edges good.
I fitted this in last Saturday evening whilst my dinner was cooking.......as jobs go it was definitely a quickie!
Paul
Last edited by walkerwek1958; 5th April 2013 at 18:47.
Well done Paul... polishing out scratches is easy enough, but doing it in such a sympathetic manner certainly is not!
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