S4 Black SS scratched (photo)

[Azathoth123]

Old timers trick, try rubbing the scratches with black shoe polish, let dry and buff. It won’t make scratches go away but they should be considerably less noticeable.

I got a cheap bumper case - Spigen I believe - for hiking etc.

 

[44267547]

Old timers trick, try rubbing the scratches with black shoe polish, let dry and buff. It won’t make scratches go away but they should be considerably less noticeable.

Or you could use a simpler method with a Cape Cod cloth, which removes minor scratches/haze without having to use...’Shoe-polish.’ And I can’t say I would recommend using shoe polish, because if any of the polish got lodged in between the crevices of the Apple Watch, that would be problematic.

 

[Azathoth123]

Or you could use a simpler method with a Cape Cod cloth, which removes minor scratches/haze without having to use...’Shoe-polish.’ And I can’t say I would recommend using shoe polish, because if any of the polish got lodged in between the crevices of the Apple Watch, that would be problematic.

Shoe polish is just wax, it’s removable.

Another idea is to use a black Sharpie then maybe something like an alcohol wipe or Cape Cod cloth to remove the Sharpie from everywhere but in the scratches.

 

[44267547]

Shoe polish is just wax, it’s removable.

But the problem using paste, waxes or anything of that nature, if it gets lodged in between the crevices of the display and casing, or lodged in the ports of the Apple Watch, that’s problematic. The benefit to the Cape Cod cloth, it just leaves a slightly oily resin behind on the casing, which you can wipe off with a cloth. It’s just a safer bet.

 

[Azathoth123]

But the problem using paste, waxes or anything of that nature, if it gets lodged in between the crevices of the display and casing, or lodged in the ports of the Apple Watch, that’s problematic. The benefit to the Cape Cod cloth, it just leaves a slightly oily resin behind on the casing, which you can wipe off with a cloth. It’s just a safer bet.

Or don’t put the wax anywhere but the scratches. A cotton swab or similar should do.

 

[Partridge]

A lot of people here don’t seem to understand how DLC coatings work.

They are an exceptionally hard, exceptionally thin coating on the surface of the watch.

DLC will resist most forms of surface scratching. I’ve found with many DLC items that what seems like a scratch initially is actually bits of what you though scratched your item rubbed off onto the coating, not the opposite.

On the other hand, DLC is very thin. So what it is applied to matters a great deal. If you apply it onto hardened steel it will be nearly impervious. The Apple Watch is NOT hardened steel. It’s a relatively soft stainless alloy. So the DLC is like an eggshell coating on top of a soft egg.

If you do something to the watch that would normally cause a gouge or any kind of surface deformation on a Stainless steel watch, the DLC won’t help you. It will help you with anything that would have caused superficial scuffing or scratching.

The OP’s pictures clearly show that this isn’t a surface scuff. The stainless material has been deformed and gouged. DLC isn’t of any use in this case, and the damage is more than the result of just brushing against dirt. Something had to have enough hardness and force to have done that to a bare stainless watch, and it would take more than brushing against dirt to do that.

 

[44267547]

A lot of people here don’t seem to understand how DLC coatings work.

The best way I like to describe diamond like carbon coating, is it’s more of a ‘protective paint’, also, DLC is simply the particulate used on the PVD coating, which is a bonded substrate. It’s far more durable over PVD, but uses a similar process, but is more of thin coating and not as durable either as DLC. The space gray bands and gold bands use PVD, merely for minor scratch resistance.