Patina And Me: Enjoying The Fratelloris One Month On (Video)
You’ve seen pictures of bronze watches before, some with almost no patina at all, and some that looked like there’s a forest growing on them. How quickly does the Fratelloris (Oris x Fratello collab watch) start to develop patina? A question we received a number of times of people who ordered one. In this video, we’ll show you.
Together with Karina, I talk about the development of patina on the Oris Big Crown Pointer Date in bronze. We show you a brand new Oris that we just unboxed versus the one I have been wearing since December 1st (or actually a few days before the introduction day).
Bronze Patina
Bronze has been used for many years now for watches. One of the first watches in bronze I ever came across was the Gérald Genta Gefica from my (now) colleague Gerard Nijenbrinks. For most of you, I think, the Panerai 382 or “Bronzo” was the first encounter with a bronze watch. Meanwhile, a lot of brands started to use bronze as material. Sometimes in slightly different compositions of the bronze material. Some add a small amount of gold, to slow down the development of patina, for example.
The development of patina
When I started wearing the watch, the first week was all fine. I noticed some fingerprint-like stains, that couldn’t be wiped off. After two weeks, the watch already became slightly darker, and more evenly so. It all heavily depends on your skin type (the Ph level of your sweat, etcetera) and perhaps on the environment you are in (in humid countries it might speed up the process). I am not a sweaty guy, yet the development went rather quickly. I also have to add that I left the watch very close to our radiator (which is blazingly hot during cold days). That might have had an impact as well.
Cleaning it up
You also might like to start all over again with your bronze watch. This is perfectly possible, as we explain in this video. Also, Bert has written an article (a long time ago) on restoring a bronze watch to its original looks. You can find it here. He also shows you how to speed up the process. When you want to reverse the aging process, all you need is a bit of lemon juice, soda, and baking powder. With these ingredients, you create a paste and cover your watch with it (remove the strap first). With a soft toothbrush, you can clean your bronze watch up and it will start to look like new in just a matter of minutes.
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