Do bronze watches typically have an odor?

Hi! I've been doing my research about bronze watches before potentially purchasing a bronze Oris ProPilot. One bit of info I keep stumbling across is most bronze watches tend to give off a bad odor as they patina and can even leave your wrist smelling bad? 

Can anyone actually confirm this? Thanks in advance!

Reply
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I've got an Oris BCPD in bronze.  The only odor I've noticed is that of refinement, taste, and breeding.

Ok, fine.  Since you're asking, I just went and smelled my watch like a frickin' weirdo.  I guess it smells faintly like pennies?  But real faintly and only when I held it right up against my nose.  Which, for your dignity as well as that of any strangers in the vicinity, I hope you won't be doing.

I think this is like the patina debate.  If you're ok with patina, you'll be ok with the watch.  But if you hate patina, then I guess an imaginary smell is another thing to object to.  Some people just don't like patina and have to get on some strange jihad against it.  Other than them, I don't see how a watch is going to be distractingly smelly.

So the question is, are you ok with patina or not?

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Consider your body's natural pH... Is your perspiration more acidic or alkaline? More acidic may mean you get the skin stain. 

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@thekris nailed it. There is a faint smell when you sniff your wrist, but you've got bigger problems if sniffing your wrist is a normal activity. 😂

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KristianG

@thekris nailed it. There is a faint smell when you sniff your wrist, but you've got bigger problems if sniffing your wrist is a normal activity. 😂

I'm starting a wrist sniffers anonymous group if anyone's interested.

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KristianG

@thekris nailed it. There is a faint smell when you sniff your wrist, but you've got bigger problems if sniffing your wrist is a normal activity. 😂

And this is why I always take my watch off before I sniff it.

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thekris

I've got an Oris BCPD in bronze.  The only odor I've noticed is that of refinement, taste, and breeding.

Ok, fine.  Since you're asking, I just went and smelled my watch like a frickin' weirdo.  I guess it smells faintly like pennies?  But real faintly and only when I held it right up against my nose.  Which, for your dignity as well as that of any strangers in the vicinity, I hope you won't be doing.

I think this is like the patina debate.  If you're ok with patina, you'll be ok with the watch.  But if you hate patina, then I guess an imaginary smell is another thing to object to.  Some people just don't like patina and have to get on some strange jihad against it.  Other than them, I don't see how a watch is going to be distractingly smelly.

So the question is, are you ok with patina or not?

Lol this answer was pure class! I appreciate you sniffing your watch to save me from doing it at my AD haha. 

The smell of fresh pennies and patina in the morning is the same as the smell of breeding to me so I really appreciate it!

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keelhaul

And this is why I always take my watch off before I sniff it.

Right!  You wouldn’t want to look like a weirdo. 

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No idea about the odor; but this watch looks stunning!

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I can’t add anything to the odor discussion either, but love your Pro Pilot. First time I’ve seen one in bronze and it looks great!

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Why does metal smell? Chemists have found a surprising answer: it doesn't.

After you've grasped an iron railing, a door handle or a piece of steel cutlery, your hand often gives off what seems to be a metallic odour. But Dietmar Glindemann of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and his co-workers say that you're not smelling the metal at all.

They have found that the musty odour comes from chemical compounds in your skin, which are transformed in an instant by the touch of iron. They report the results in the international edition of Angewandte Chemie1.

Copper has a similar effect, accounting for the metallic smell created by handling coins made of copper alloys. "When a shopkeeper hands you a coin," says Glindemann, "you're smelling his body odour."

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Hi, I own the above bronze ProPilot and it developed patina rather quickly.

I confirm that the bronze case lightly smells like pennies. Nevertheless, my wrist does not smell at all after wearing it. Maybe that‘s also due to the caseback being made out of steel.