Bronze Patina - Good or Bad?
So, I know bronze watches have been popular for a few years now. And a big part of the charm is fact they acquire a “patina” rather quickly over time. I’m curious people’s experience with bronze patina and what it ends up looking like in reality. Would love to see pics of anyone’s bronze watches that have been worn awhile. Do you think the patina is cool or merely makes watch look dirty/discolored?
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Linus
Welcome to my WatchCrunch profile.
Pennsylvania
Member since
Last active: 1 month ago
6.25” / 15.88 cm
It’s cool but when it turns green and gangrenous looking it’s ewwww for me
I think a patina looks nice, but forced green corrosion is not nice looking.
I've had a bronze watch (CW C60 Trident Bronze). Most people don't seem to realize that there are many ways to patina a bronze watch and there are many possible results. For example, the first time I patinated it, I swam in a pool with it a couple of times. The resulting patina was dull and unattractive so I cleaned it and then let it patinate naturally in the dry Denver climate, which gave it a much more pleasant warm color. Had that not worked, I would have a forced patina using one of the methods described in articles like this:
https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/bronze-watch-guide-pt-1-%E2%80%94-lessons-in-alloys-and-aging.5212467/
There are other articles with even more methods yielding different results if you want to search for them.
Got 2 bronzies, one I'm letting patina do it's thing as it's a robust diver, the other is a more dressy diver and that's shiny shiny(in fact it's due a shine sesh very soon) . Personal choice and depends on the watch, some look better shiny and some look better with patina.
Although I don't own a bronze watch I own quite a few 9k gold ones which do tarnish. The tarnish can be easily removed from those with a jeweler's rouge impregnated cloth. I wonder if you can do something similar with bronze - if you don't like the patina, can you give it a quick clean and start over without damaging the lines and shape of the case? I don't know, just an idea.
I prefer the aluminum based bronze on the Tudor myself. I’ve owned this new since 2017 and it has dulled but not gotten that ugly green barnacle looking thing at all, like many Panerai bronzes do. I like it and would like to own every variation of these but money doesn’t allow it.