Pelagos ceramic bezel scratch

[propofolboy]

Just wanted to provide some info in case anyone scratches their pelagos ceramic bezel.

I hit it pretty hard against something metal and the ceramic blue bezel got what looked like a serious scratch (grey line about 1 cm long). I tried everything to remove it - toothbrush, eraser, car polish.. nothing seemed to touch it.. For months I noticed it everytime I looked at my watch. I was actually planning to send it in for bezel replacement..

Yesterday I had a bit of rust on one of my japanese knives, and got out my knife rust eraser.. hmmm.. could this work... Well you know what, it removed the scratch completely on the ceramic bezel, with almost no effort..

Full disclosure I had no idea what a knife eraser was made of, and probably should have looked that up first -- its a combination of rubber and silicone carbide. Silicone carbide is actually harder than sapphire on MOHs scale (like 9.5). So I don't know if this is a good idea in general because it could scratch both the sapphire crystal and ceramic bezel in theory... But in practice it worked perfectly to remove a stubborn scratch on my bezel. I looked carefully with a loupe and it did no damage and the 'scratch' was completely gone. I imagine this wasn't actually a scratch but some very persistant metal residue.

Anyway maybe this is helpful. Proceed at your own risk and YMMV.

[Billycro214]

YMMV…haha I love it.

Do you happen to have before and after pics? I’d be interested to see. But this is super interesting-thanks for sharing!

[propofolboy]

No I wish I did, but I honestly didn't think it would work!!

[JC316]

You have a pic of the eraser? Good find!

[propofolboy]

This is from a store called KnifeWear in Canada.

[JC316]

Originally Posted by propofolboy

Attachment 1385589

This is from a store called KnifeWear in Canada.

Thank you!

[CarlOver]

So it seems like you didn’t scratch the watch. You transferred metal onto the watch. Glad it worked out. No sheen difference in various light angles on the ceramic bezel?

[propofolboy]

Yes agree. Not likely a true scratch.

I think these ceramic bezels are so hard that when they hit metal (the thing they are most likely to hit when damage occurs) the metal is forced on to them with such force that the residue appears as a scratch. The problem people have is that it can be EXTREMELY adherent, as in my case.

So looking at my bezel after 'scratch' removal I don't notice any noticeable sheen difference or scratch marks on the sapphire crystal or ceramic bezel. The scratch was removed with some gentle rubbing with the knife eraser. In retrospect I probably should have used some water (ie wet sanded) with the knife eraser to be even more gentle. The result though is I can now look at my watch again without feeling sad (I'm sure everyone knows exactly this feeling!).

The real question (that maybe someone with a truly damaged ceramic bezel can try) is will the knife eraser (silicone carbide and rubber) be able to damage the ceramic bezel if someone is very aggressive with it. Is there any risk to this technique? I don't know the answer to this... But if your about to replace the bezel anyway, it might be worth a try.