The one rule. Polywatch is for hesalite / acrylic / plexiglass only. It cannot cut sapphire — and it will strip anti-reflective coatings off coated sapphire. If your Moonwatch is the sapphire-sandwich model, put the tube down.
What it is
- A German-made fine-abrasive polishing paste for plastic crystals. It works by very slightly dissolving and grinding the acrylic — rounding off scratch edges and filling micro-cracks with the crystal's own plastic.
- It removes light to medium surface scratches, scuffs, and haze — often dramatically.
- It cannot fix deep gouges, cracks, or chipped edges. At that stage the answer is a new crystal — and hesalite crystals are cheap and easy to replace, unlike sapphire.
- It cannot damage the dial or its printing: you work only on the crystal's outer surface.
How to use it, step by step
- Confirm the crystal. Hesalite/acrylic? Proceed. Sapphire, or any AR coating? Stop.
- Clean the crystal first, so loose grit doesn't carve new scratches while you buff.
- Mask the bezel and case with tape. The paste is abrasive — it will dull brushed and polished surrounds and cake into the bezel edge.
- Apply a pea-sized amount to the crystal.
- Buff with a soft cotton or microfiber cloth using firm pressure for 2–3 minutes, at a right angle to the scratches (or in circles, per the manufacturer).
- Wipe clean, inspect, and repeat for deeper marks.
The collector's take: sparingly
- Opinion splits between owners who buff out every mark and veterans who let light scratches accumulate — acrylic is going to scratch; it is part of the charm.
- The consensus rhythm: wait until it is properly hazed, then polish — once or twice a year at most. Nobody treats normal Polywatch use as harmful to value.
- You will not "polish through" the crystal with normal use. Optical distortion from over-polishing is theoretically possible; in practice, forum consensus says it doesn't happen at sane effort levels.
- A scratched hesalite crystal is also the easiest honest repair in watchmaking — replacement is inexpensive. So relax: the stakes are low either way.