Refurbishment
Our passion
Whist we undertake all variety of repairs in our state of the art workshop, our passion is polishing.
We have invested heavily in equipment that gives us the ability to refurbish luxury watches to a standard that few workshops outside of Switzerland are able to achieve.
We have refurbished over 3,500 watches to date, and with each refurbishment, we learn a little more. At this point, there’s very little we haven’t seen, from owners heartbroken that they’ve scuffed their steel Daytona just days after collecting it from the authorised dealer, to a Deep Sea Sea Dweller that was nearly destroyed in a motorcycle accident.
Where most repairers will simply polish a watch, with the aim to make it look a little less scratched than when they started, we stop at nothing to return your watch looking as close to it did the day it left the factory.
Whilst polishing is an important step of refurbishing all watches, there is much more to refurbishing a luxury watch than polishing alone.
Disassembly
To achieve a factory quality finish, the watch case must first be dis-assembled, so that each component can receive the attention it needs. Our workshop is extensively equipped with the finest Swiss tools, allowing us to dis-assemble everything from a Rolex Oyster Perpetual to a Patek Philippe Nautilus.
First, the casebook, crown and movement are removed and stored in a clean dust free environment. We then remove the crystal, bezel and pushers. The clasp is also separated from the bracelet.
Lapping
Possibly the most important step that we undertake that our competitors do not, is lapping.
Lapping is the precision grinding and resurfacing of flat and curved surfaces. It allows us to remove moderately deep scratches and imperfections, without distorting the geometry of the case.
Simply put, it allows us to keep flat surfaces perfectly flat and curved surfaces curved without ripples. The equipment needed for lapping is incredibly expensive and requires years of practice to master. Not only can we remove scratches using lapping, we can also correct the defects caused by over-polishing.
Laser Welding
For defects that are too deep to lap/grind away, we can repair with laser welding.
Our laser welder is equipped with a microscope that allows us to create microscopically small welds, so we can repair damage that traditionally would be deemed beyond repair.
We fill in deep dents and scratches with the exact alloy that the watch is made from, including 904L stainless steel, 316L stainless steel, 950 platinum and 18ct yellow, white and rose gold, ensuring the repair is indistinguishable from the original metal. After damage is filled with laser welding we then lap and polish the area to remove all traces of the repair.
Polishing/Finishing
After laser welding and lapping the final stage is to polish/ finish the case and bracelet to reinstate the fine finishing that was present when your watch left the factory.
Mirror polished surfaces are meticulously polished by hand on cotton polishing mops coated with fine polishing compounds. The work is inspected under controlled lighting to ensure a perfect mirror polish is achieved, free from distortion and haziness.
Brushed surfaces are finished with abrasives that have been selected to closely replicate the texture of the factory satin finishing. Some brushed finishes are applied by hand, others are applied using the lapping machine. When applying satin finishing, great care is taken to ensure that the grain runs perfectly parallel and in the correct direction.
Matte surfaces, such as that found on the Rolex Yachtmaster bezel, are media blasted in a machine designed for dental implant manufacturers. We have scoured material supply houses to find a blasting media that creates a finish that is almost indistinguishable from that produced by Rolex.
We also offer fluted bezel recutting for Rolex Day-Date, Datejust and Sky-Dweller models, as well as Rolex Explorer II sunburst bezel refurbishment.
Re-assembly
After each element of the case, bracelet and clasp is carefully refurbished, the parts are cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaning bath to remove the residual polishing compounds and abrasives.
The parts are then dried in a temperature controlled oven before being carefully reassembled.
During reassembly we replace any damaged or worn gaskets as standard, and pressure test the re-assembled case to confirm its water resistance.