Possible to ruin Rolex mirror finish with sunshine cloths?

[gentz]

People claim that cape cod can ruin polished surfaces of a rolex by adding a cloudy finish from microscratches that is visibly different from the Rolex factory finish to the naked eye.

For those of you who have used sunshine cloths (not cape cod) can you confirm if this is also a concern? If you lightly touch up one part of your watch with sunshine cloths, will it be visibly different from the other untouched parts of your watch? And does it make a difference if its PM or steel?

[Tools]

Both Sunshine and Cape Cod contain polishing rouge that helps cut the metal, so, yes, they both leave a cloudy finish afterwards. You are supposed to wash the rouge off and wipe with a clean micro fiber type cloth afterwards

[77T]

Also be careful not to rub aggressively in the same direction repeatedly over the blemish you are trying to mitigate.


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[gentz]

Originally Posted by Tools

Both Sunshine and Cape Cod contain polishing rouge that helps cut the metal, so, yes, they both leave a cloudy finish afterwards. You are supposed to wash the rouge off and wipe with a clean micro fiber type cloth afterwards

So first you rinse with water and then you wipe with the clean micro fiber cloth? Or the other way around?

Also if you do it right, will the finish match the other parts of the watch that haven't been touched?

[gentz]

Originally Posted by 77T

Also be careful not to rub aggressively in the same direction repeatedly over the blemish you are trying to mitigate.


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which way are you supposed to rub if not in the same direction? Would a circular motion be better? The youtube videos i've found on this haven't been very helpful, most of them are rubbing in the same direction

[JenaG]

The cloth doesn’t ruin the finish, people using it improperly do

[ArtNouveau]

I’ve had better results with Sunshine over Cape Cod but I really only use it on my PCL clasps. It is not as perfect as a machine polish but looks pretty good to me.

[Nairn1980]

I’d leave well alone

[jimcameron]

No

[1William]

I do not use any polishing cloths.

[travisb]

Leave it alone or take it to a good watchmaker for a polish. I wouldn't take the chance of ruining the finish.

[EEpro]

Get a finer polishing rouge from esslinger if you're going down the rabbit hole of mirror finish.

I'd recommend leaving it alone. If you can afford a $10,000 watch you can afford to have someone do it right for $300... or ignore the scratches.

Did I mention you should ignore the scratches?

[brandrea]

Another

The mirror finish on Rolex watches will get scratches or swirl marks from pretty much just looking at them the wrong way.

You’ll need to keep that polishing cloth in your pocket if you want your watch to stay looking brand new.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by gentz

People claim that cape cod can ruin polished surfaces of a rolex by adding a cloudy finish from microscratches that is visibly different from the Rolex factory finish to the naked eye.

For those of you who have used sunshine cloths (not cape cod) can you confirm if this is also a concern? If you lightly touch up one part of your watch with sunshine cloths, will it be visibly different from the other untouched parts of your watch? And does it make a difference if its PM or steel?

The only time any Rolex needs any sort of polishing is at normal routine service only,the sure way to routine any watch is wanting to polish every time you see the slightest scratch.

[Dave O]

People such as myself and Mystro (he's the expert on the subject) have had very good success bringing PCL's and clasps back to life. It's all in the technique, which Mystro has mastered. A link to one of his works below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y9lfx7yjri...0net.jpg?raw=1

[Calatrava r]

Yes. Leave the watch alone until a proper service by experts with the brand and its materials. Cloudy was the word I was searching in another post I made elsewhere. Good word to describe what can remain after the rub.

[goldboy]

Absolutely. I wouldn't touch a Rolex with anything past a microfiber cloth. Let it build patina and micro-scratches on its own.

[Mystro]

Is it possible to damage your cars engine with a set of hand tools when taking apart your fuel injectors?? It’s a loaded question and of course depends on your abilities before taking on the job. It’s certainly not the proper tools fault if you screw up the job while learning a new skill is it???

A Sunshine cloth is a tool to restore a mirror finish. And I mean a perfect “mirror finish”.
But like any tool if you don’t know how to use it then you might not get a factory mirror finish. Maybe the first few times you erase the scratch and get a pretty good mirror finish. You have to learn and develop your eye with practice.
It’s not a hard trick to master but you do need to actually know what and how a Sunshine cloth works. A polishing cloth cannot take off enough metal to change the lines of your watch so let’s get that fear out of the way. A polishing cloth like a Yellow Sunshine cloth is for touch-ups. A mechanical polishing buffer wheel is for full detailing. The two are very different ends of the spectrum.

It’s always prudent to actually learn how a tool works and honing your skill on another object before diving into something you care about.

[thesharkfactor]

If you have so little experience that you need to ask questions like these, best leave it well alone.

[Palmetto_32]

Honestly the best way ive found out to clean is rinse with hot water, dawn foam dish soap and hand clean it with no towels, brushes or any other tools. Then get a blow dyer to dry it. Have a 126618LB for over a year and looks like it just came out of the coffin.

[gentz]

Originally Posted by Mystro

Is it possible to damage your cars engine with a set of hand tools when taking apart your fuel injectors?? It’s a loaded question and of course depends on your abilities before taking on the job. It’s certainly not the proper tools fault if you screw up the job while learning a new skill is it???

A Sunshine cloth is a tool to restore a mirror finish. And I mean a perfect “mirror finish”.
But like any tool if you don’t know how to use it then you might not get a factory mirror finish. Maybe the first few times you erase the scratch and get a pretty good mirror finish. You have to learn and develop your eye with practice.
It’s not a hard trick to master but you do need to actually know what and how a Sunshine cloth works. A polishing cloth cannot take off enough metal to change the lines of your watch so let’s get that fear out of the way. A polishing cloth like a Yellow Sunshine cloth is for touch-ups. A mechanical polishing buffer wheel is for full detailing. The two are very different ends of the spectrum.

It’s always prudent to actually learn how a tool works and honing your skill on another object before diving into something you care about.

Some people here have made it seem like no matter how good of a job you do, the cloth will definitely leave a cloudy/haze finish that doesn't match the factory finish. I'm glad to read that this isn't the case.

Do you have any online material/videos you could recommend me to learn the technique so that I can start practicing on other things?

[joli160]

I did use sunshine cloth after reading Mystro’s posts and got rid of the Cape Cod.
Results are amazing, zero chance of ruining a case and zero haze in my experience.
Cape Cod leaves micro scratches or swirls only visible by using a loupe. Sunshine cloth gives you a real mirror shine.

Nowadays I don’t care one bit anymore about scratches.

[gentz]

Originally Posted by joli160

I did use sunshine cloth after reading Mystro’s posts and got rid of the Cape Cod.
Results are amazing, zero chance of ruining a case and zero haze in my experience.
Cape Cod leaves micro scratches or swirls only visible by using a loupe. Sunshine cloth gives you a real mirror shine.

Nowadays I don’t care one bit anymore about scratches.

thanks for the feedback. which post are you referring to? Where can I learn the proper technique?

[joli160]

Originally Posted by gentz

thanks for the feedback. which post are you referring to? Where can I learn the proper technique?

I don’t have a link but if you do a google search Mystro Sunshine Rolexforums you might find a post of him in where he describes how he does it.
His watches look all better than new, real artist

[928ktgold]

So yellow sunshine cloths are the consensus for light touch ups?

[EEpro]

Originally Posted by jtorrebl

So yellow sunshine cloths are the consensus for light touch ups?

Blue are even gentler but unsure if they can polish much out of steel.

[Mystro]

I prefer a yellow sunshine cloth the most even over the blue. The beauty of the yellow cloth is when it turns black from its initial use over the hair line scratches, the black used area is what you use for the final buff as it is more gentle now.

As far as tips: There are so many depending on the project. Here are just the basics.

The first rule would be to keep your workspace surgically clean. That means never setting the polishing cloth down anywhere it can pick up micro contaminants. Micro contaminants is how polishing cloths leave unwanted scratches. You want your watch washed with Dawn and water to remove any oil or contaminants and dry before you work on it. Use a new clean mouse pad or new gun cleaning neoprene pad as your work space. Then when you are done clean the pad, roll it up and store it on a plastic bag. I use these for all my bracelet sizing or polishing fine watches.

Never use short choppy back and forth motions. Use light long one directional strokes across the entire surface you were working on. We are looking for even level smooth motions.
Make sure you tape off any satin/brushed areas or any surfaces you might accidentally touch with the cloth you dont want touched. Most of this is feel and experience. I highly recommend practicing on other items to get an idea of how this works.

There are so many tricks and techniques you will learn as you go. Don’t be afraid to do this as it’s a valuable skill to master as a WIS. Heck, our earlier TRF tutorials was a lot more scary like removing engraving from a watch case back. Much like sizing your own bracelet, touching up hairline scratches with a yellow Sunshine cloth is easy once you get the hang of it. It also removes any worries about minor scratches as you can erase them yourself.


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