Sratches happen sooner or later. While some call it “patina” and thinks it adds a watch character. Like “I put that scratch while I close the summit of Mount Everest” or “This dent is from last race when I fall of the bike while I was pushing for the 1st place in the race”. Well this type of stuff does not happen to most of us and scratches look ugly (see below). It would be good option to be able to remove scratches from your watch.
1- If this the first time you are dealing with sand papers, TRY them on another surface. It is not an easy job to obtain a nice even brushed surface.
2- Mask the watch properly. Cover the surfaces which you do not want to brush with a masking tape.
3- With a sharp hobby knife, trim the tape closely following the edges of the case. Touch the the case like you are shaving your face, unless you dig-in the sharp part to case, you would not scratch it.
4- You are ready to work. It takes a lot of time. Based on how deep the scratches are you can go down to 800 grit unless you planning to refinish all the watch. You can go coarser but coming back up would be time consuming you most likely get tired. Push your thumb semi firmly to evenly brush all surface. Do not press too much otherwise you will put deeper scratches than you should. You should get used to it so I suggest training on another surface first.
5- As I observed, green 3m Scotch pad gives you a matching brushed surface with most of the watch cases has on. So you can use a green 3m Scotch pad for final finishing. Key to success is brushing single direction. Touch the pad on watch, make a pass, remove the pad from watch surface, engage the pad again from the beginning and make another pass and go on until you get a nice and evenly brushed surface. Polishing is another story and will be explained in another tutorial.
Not easy to reach but finally you can sit and enjoy your success. Fresh scratch free surface to scratch it all over back again. Good luck!
