Bronze Watches, Fad or Rad?

Bronze is fun in affordable watches, but if you're looking at the luxury end of things I'd stick to steel, gold, and titanium. 

It's a notch above alternative materials like wood and cheese. Like brass, it may be okay if plated.

Bronze does not react well with me at all, and I don't like the smell of it.  Yes, I can smell the bronze.  I'm getting old and not everything works at optimum levels except my nose.

I love my bronze watch. The case has gotten such a warm look to it and I always liked my carbon steel kitchen knives that develop a similar patina. It feels personal in a way I suppose. I also particularly like the blue and bronze on my watch as a combination. 
 

They have a place. They are fun to wear and I think look good. Totally get why one would not care about them though. 

Some people like variety in materials, and others do not. Then again, so many people have watch boxes filled with near identical watches, so I’m not surprised.  Me, I love the warmth the bronze brings me when I look at it. I think of vintage dive helmets with the cages on them. I think of early aquatic explorers using the materials they knew were anti corrosive, and exploring where people never went before.  I think of early submarines and treasure hunters of the early 20th century.  Others see bronze and say: “Oh, so it just gets dirty over time, cool.”

I don’t see the material going away soon, it has a broad appeal to many types of collectors.  Some of the same people that say a patinated bronze watch looks “dirty or corroded” are the same that wear steel sports watches that look like they got dragged behind a car on the freeway for 10 years, oh but that is “real wear” 😂 it’s all fun and games to me, people like what they like, but I don’t understand the condescending attitudes towards anything other than 316L and precious metals.  I don’t like to put limitations on things I might enjoy :)

A few angles showcasing my bronze Shinola, my other photos are on my computer, these are the best I could snap quickly in the light I have. Few more on my page, but hard to compare this watch to a BB bronze lol. 

I think bronze is cool. Additionall, I dig your Glycine. 

I've considered picking up a bronze piece from a microbrand, but never pulled the trigger. I like the idea of bronze and making it your own with a "custom, unique-to-me" patina, but I don't know if I want my wrist to smell like pennies after wearing a watch and I'm not sure how much I'll wear it.

ticket wrong box above , but bronze seems like it would be good to have one in the collection.  I imagine the routine of tarnish -> clean -> tarnish would make it keep seeming like new watches!😀

Bronze looks super dope, and I see myself buying one eventually! Though I definitely find myself looking more towards the budget end for bronze pieces 

It looks kinda cool on some watches but I don't like the poo-tina personally and I prefer the light weight of titanium. 

I like when things look deliberately ruined. Like carbon steel pans or knives. So the Sam could be said about bronze watches. I would love to have one of those one day. Don't know which yet, though. 

Bronze is fine as long as someone doesn't try to "force patina", aka corrosion. 

That is a gorgeous watch 

Sick piece! Went to a Shinola store in Boston a few week’s ago to see that Bronze beauty and checkout their (then unreleased) hand-wound piece. The Bronze was out of stock which was probably a good thing cause I’d probably impulse bought it and be Schwarzkopf-ing bronze watches at the Sox game 😂 

I tried bronze and it just wasn't for me. 

I've had several over the years, bronze and brass. I usually just let them patina on their own, but then again, you can also do this, which is a hell of a lot of fun.  

I wanted to do that to get patina right away I couldn’t bring myself to do it. But that Steeldive looks so good I may have to “invest” in a test watch 🤔

Dang! I’m sad you didn’t get to see it in person, but I feel you on the impulse buy lol. I looked through bronze watches for weeks and weeks before I pulled the trigger. I’m from Michigan, and have lots of family from Detroit, so it’s a part of the reason too that I went with Shinola. 

It was always my understanding that patina is a natural chemical barrier that forms between the metal surface and air, whereas corrosion is chemical damage of the base metal itself.  Patina can be ”cleaned” whereas corrosion is destroyed metal. I’m no chemist, but I see this misconception a lot when talking about bronze watches. 
 

For instance, this video, the owner forces patina, but it is easily reversed, showing no corrosion. 
https://youtu.be/DAHe79gfdNk

Also, talk about lucky owning two Panerai Submersibles like the guy in the video. 

It's the same reaction caused by oxidation of the top layer, the difference is in the magnitude.

Hmm, a lot of sources seem to point that patina and corrosion are not one and the same.  Most sources claim a layer of patination prevents corrosion over the long term, as seen in ancient bronze coins that would’ve been long gone if not for the protective patina. ”Patina” is a word widely used. Iron rust is patina, which is definitely corrosive to the base metal.  Patina on Bronze formed from the air is not corrosive to the base metal, not in terms of a human lifetime by far. 

They are somewhat right because oxidation is not the only process that can cause corrosion. In bronze the contact with oxygen will create a protective film that stops the reaction from continuing. That's what we perceive as tarnish or patina. Let the oxidation process continue and you end up with corrosion. Even better, let the metal combine with another element for which it has a greater affinity (such as chlorine in the case of copper and bronze) and the metal will corrode rapidly in front of your eyes. The same phenomena can be observed with aluminum where the layer of aluminum oxide prevents corrosion and you can watch some very interesting videos on YT showing what happen when this film is destroyed and the metal is brought in contact with mercury.

Ahhhhh, now I see what you and @Catskinner have been explaining to me. Thank you for the lesson gents!  Also, I agree with you Mr. Catskinner, I don’t think forced patina generally looks good. If you happened to watch the video of the panerais, you can see all of the green patina just rubbing off on the man’s gloves 😂. I think every video I watched of someone using salts, they say they highly regret it in the end. I‘ll stick to the patina that my cats make when they rub their faces on my watch. Much cuter anyway- there is already one spot near my bezel of my bronze that is from my cat. It should be with me for a long time. 

The main difference (beside chemistry) is the intent. A bronze watch that is showing real patina is one that was used but was also well taken care of. A real pro or artisan will never let his tools rust or corrode. Or let us imagine a situation where you are the sergeant in charge of a squad of soldiers and your are conducting a weapon's inspection. All of the weapons are showing sign of usage, the triggers are smooth, the ejector flaps are scratched and the bluing is worn around the muzzles. But they are all clean, the trigger action and bolt movement are smooth, the barrels are free of dirt and they all have this faint shine caused by light oiling. There's not a speck of rust to be seen.

Except for the rifle of Pvt. Stupid, which is welded shut by rust but he then tries to explain that the rust is adding character and is a sign that this is the tool of a true professional soldier.

Yeah, right.