So I ventured into the realm of polishing my watch...

[Archer1440]

The stainless link band is stamped "316 L" stainless. Where are you obtaining 57 Rockwell? Can you provide evidence where you read or how you know the band is 57 Rockwell? And I used a small dab of Mothers stainless on the stainless bracelet and it removed the scratch immediately, without blemishing the band. So, no it did not ruin the bracelet or its appearance what so ever.

Here you go, sparky. (remember, the material has been cold-worked, and is not in the annealed condition)

http://www.aksteel.com/pdf/markets_products/stainless/austenitic/316_316l_data_bulletin.pdf

https://www.astm.org/Standards/A240.htm

And there's a Rockwell testing device 50 feet from my office.

 

[ardchoille50]

So I always knew that I would eventually give my SS Apple Watch a polish at some point. I got the SS version because I wanted the toughness of the sapphire screen, but the polished steel always gave me pause. Recently I accidentally gave my watch a couple scratches I just couldn't ignore when I banged it into a wall. So I went searching for instructions and was inspired by this video:

In it Dom uses Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish and a small cloth. I went and found the same stuff at Walmart and gave it a shot. I have to say, the results look great, and the pesky scratches that were bothering me are gone.

But I would like to caution everyone about this stuff. You have to be REALLY careful not to get it into the ports, which is harder than it would seem. When in the canister, the polish appears to be waxy, and I figured it would be easy enough to keep it in check. But as soon as I applied it to the watch the polish turned into a liquid and went everywhere. Despite my efforts, some wound up inside the speaker port.

I thought this would be no problem, I finished up my work, buffed everything off the watch, then ran to the sink to run some water over the watch. The ports looked clear and there were no signs of polish anywhere. But then I set a timer to remind me of something in a few minutes, and when it went off... no sound even though the watch was not muted.

I had a brief panic moment. Had I just ruined my watch? I was getting ready to make a Genius Bar appointment, really glad that I had paid for AppleCare, when I realized I had a can of compressed air. So I blew that into the speaker port and tried the timer again. This time I could actually hear something. So I went back to the sink and alternated between rinsing and blowing compressed air through the port. Each time I did the speaker got louder. Eventually everything was back to normal, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Later I discovered this video:

In it they mention that you can get cloths that are pre-soaked with polish. That is definitely what I will use the next time I give this a try!

So how about it? Anyone else try polishing their watch? What products did you use?

That second video shows Nevr Dull. We used that stuff on a daily basis in the US Navy and it works wonders. That stuff is amazing.

 

[44267547]

Here you go, sparky. (remember, the material has been cold-worked, and is not in the annealed condition)

http://www.aksteel.com/pdf/markets_products/stainless/austenitic/316_316l_data_bulletin.pdf

https://www.astm.org/Standards/A240.htm

And there's a Rockwell testing device 50 feet from my office.

Thanks for providing the links. After reading through the information, where is it indicated or listed 316 L is 57 Rockwell tested or specified? I see the composition break down and elements, but more specifically, is there a source you can provide that indicates that?

 

[Archer1440]

Read more carefully- it's there. You need to convert the B scale number to A, and factor in the cold work.

 

[44267547]

Read more carefully- it's there. You need to convert the B scale number to A, and factor in the cold work.

It is? Which link then? I didn't see anything about it 57 Rockwell tested and or specifying this.

Edit: OP never responded back. I read through both manuscripts and never observed anything specifically indicating 316 L was tested at 57Rockwell, more specifically, the 316 L Link bracelet.

 

[philMBP]

delete