Elgin and Waltham, and maybe others, made some nickel 18s full-plate movements that had "frosted" damaskeened plates.I've never seen one in person, only in pictures, but they look pretty nice.Would anyone know how that was done? I'm assuming it was plated on over the nickel.Was it some type of alloy?Thanks!....Ted.

This was likely done using nitric acid as the primary step, then decorated.

William

Nickel was found to be easily plated on any surface using an "Electroless" method discovered by accident; "Metallic nickel plating from aqueous solution in the presence of hypophosphite was first noted as a chemical accident by Wurtz in 1844". Few practical applications were found until WWII, but clearly watch plates were one that was briefly popular and applied by Waltham among others . . . Matte, semi-bright or bright finishes are easily obtained allowing a "frosted" effect. This process allows Nickel to be easily applied to any material and to any practical thickness. I might add that this process is used BIG TIME these days on EVERY computer memory disk made!

Thanks Bill & Dave1, Ted.

Does this Rockford qualify as a frosted plate?

From the picture it looks more like a two tone with some Gold over Nickel plates.

Waltham `92`main/ratchet wheel markings.

I guess we`ve all seen the intricate plate damascening on Waltham 92 models, but how about the main/ratchet wheel markings. You can virtually identify the grade from these markings as they`re all different - ok, you can get the odd same markings with two different grades occasionally. And we all know the Vanguard grade from its plain machined wheels.
But, has anyone seen frosty type finishes on these wheels ? I found some the other day which I`ve never seen before. It doesn`t look like they`ve been tampered with, just plain frosting.