DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE OR KNOWHOW ABOUT CLEANING A GOLD METAL DIAL ON A SOUTH BEND 16 SIZE WATCH?
THANKS

Don, metal dials finished with thin, unprotected gold or silver plating for early 20TH century US watchmakers all suffer easily from the corrsion of the copper-based substrate "telegraphing" through the decoratvie plating. Gently clean the dial wby hand in a solution of dish soap and warm water and if the dial remains "dirty" looking you either have to use it "as-is", find a better dial (hard for South Bends), or send it to International Dial Co. in Ohio who will re-plate it and print some sort of new numbers and the maker's Name on it for you.

I have done a few South Bend watches for a friend who had me send them to International dial company because the dials were is so poor a shape it was hard to read some of the numbers. One of the dials was a cream/golden color background that came off but left the numbers in place when he tried to clean it. So be careful if this is what you are describing.
I was pleasantly surprised how they came out. The numbers looked almost the same as the numbers that were visible before the work was done. This was the budget refinishing. I understand that they have a service for collectible watches that will make sure that everything is exactly as it was on the original.
I have a few Illinois 12s watches that I will be sending to them because of the work they did. But they are beyond saving and better a refinished dial than one that is half gone.

I also came across this post in the clock repair section. I have not tried the method, but I would be very careful when doing it. Perhaps try it on a spare dial that is already ruined if you have one.

Thanks to all for replying to my question about dials.