The short version. Honest wear — light swirls, faint desk-diving marks — is character: leave it alone. Deep gouges, dented lugs, and cracked crystals are damage: repair professionally. And a vintage case should never see a routine polishing wheel.
Character vs. damage
- Character: light swirls on the case and bracelet, faint desk-diving marks on the clasp, a bezel insert faded by decades of sun. This is the watch's autobiography — collectors read it with pleasure.
- Damage: deep gouges, dented or deformed lugs, a cracked hesalite crystal, a broken bezel insert. This is a different category, and it can justify professional restoration.
- For deep marks, the right craft is laser welding — metal added back and refinished — not grinding the surrounding metal down to the depth of the scratch.
Why collectors say: don't polish the case
- Every polish removes microns of metal — rounding the lugs, softening the beveled chamfers, eventually thinning the lugs themselves. The crisp geometry is exactly what collectors pay for.
- It is irreversible. As the forums put it: you can always polish later, but you can never un-polish.
- Unpolished cases with sharp original lines command a genuine premium on vintage references. No fixed percentage exists — the case is one factor among dial, lume, hands, and bezel — but the direction is not in doubt.
- Telltale signs of an over-polished case: rounded edges and corners, lugs that look soft, thin, or uneven, wear inconsistent with the watch's age.
Nuance, because collectors love nuance. A proper refinish by a specialist can preserve — even reinstate — sharp edges, with dents micro-welded rather than ground out. That is a restoration craft that can take as long as servicing the movement. It is not what a routine service-center buff delivers. If your vintage piece must visit Omega, decline case and bracelet refinishing in explicit writing — and know even that may not guarantee compliance.
So: the scratch on your watch
- Light mark on the case or bracelet? Relish it. It is character, and removing it costs metal you will never get back.
- Scratched hesalite crystal? Different story — see Polywatch & the hesalite crystal. Crystals are renewable; cases are not.
- Deep gouge, dented lug, cracked crystal? Take it to a professional. This is damage, and proper repair protects both the watch and its value.