Patina: the blue cheese of vintage watches

[koimaster]

Stilton, Roquefort, Bleuchâtel or Gorgonzola these cheese names might have been synonyms of repulsiveness when you were juvenile but I’m sure that you’ve learn to appreciate them over the years. Your refined palate and your taste for discovery led you to new frontiers, new experiences, in other words to eat rotten cheese….

And that’s absolutely fine, we all love their texture, bitterness as well as their surprising spiciness.

When it comes to food, our learning curve seems infinite we can all remember our parents forcing their spoon full of spinach in our mouth but now we’re fine eating oysters and broccoli.

Same goes for vintage watches. You start appreciating “easy watches” in mint condition most of the time from well-known brands. A Rolex GMT from the 90’s or a Speedmaster in perfect conditions from the 70’s or an Omega Seamaster from the 60’s. From there you can slowly derive towards more “complicated” watches not in terms of mechanics but more on an esthetical point of view. Some see patina as the holy grail of vintage but what is patina and what is not?

Patina is the result of a long exposition to sunlight, to tropical climates or simply is an iteration of time. Most of the time, when we talk of patina we talk of the decolouration of the lume on indexes or hands. Usually collectors are looking for creamy or chocolate patina. But how can this decolouration happen?

http://www.europastar.com/time-keeper/1 ... tches.html

[Pubbie]

A lot of fake fauxtine-d lume is the colour of knob cheese, unfortunately. Or an old English schoolmaster's teeth. Disgusting.

This one is particularly gr-eau-ss. Seriously, that sort of mottled orange-brown. Blech.

[conjurer]

A lot of fake fauxtine-d lume is the colour of knob cheese, unfortunately. Or an old English schoolmaster's teeth. Disgusting.

This one is particularly gr-eau-ss. Seriously, that sort of mottled orange-brown. Blech.

"Old Radium" (which is something like Superluminova calls it) makes my vomit through my nostrils.