During the war, many watch crystals were made (and the packages marked) with "war plastic", meaning the "good stuff" was used for the war, Aircraft Plexiglass windshields, etc.,etc. BUT! These crystals which are ALL yellowed now are VERY hydroscopic, meaning that you might have well been soaking the watch hands in slightly salty water most of the time these dials were on the watches. If you have any watches with these crystals, remove them or suffer losing the hands.

Oddly, I have seen little or no damage to the movement, excepting some rusting of the cannon pinion end in extreme cases.

David,

Thanks for the tip. I have come across this condition in the past on one or two watches and can't say as I payed much attention to it. I just thought the hands fell victum to father time so to speak. I know now that while evaluating a prospective watch in the future I will keep this little morsel of information in the back of my memory banks. I don't care much for plastic and if I have to have a new one installed it's always glass if possible.

Steve

Wow, I found 4 watches in my collection with these crystals. One of the watches has a painted dial and I see signs of rust on it too.

Do the modern plastic cystals create the same problem down the line?

Where I can get glass crystals installed?

Ernie, we have several people in 185 that can re-crystal watches. The best thing is to get those yellow crystals off unless the hands are already "gone". The picture I posted shows a ruined seconds hand, but I will de-rust, polish and re-blue the Hour and Minute hands as they are still ok.

The newer crystals are a better acrylic that will not do this. As a rule of thumb replace Yellow plastic crystals as soon as you can, or remove them until replacements can be foiund.

David: I removed all the yellow crystals ASAP. The hands are still OK but a couple could use rebluing.

I have reblued my guns from time to time to keep them from rusting. Can I use the same bluing on the hands as I do on the guns?

Ernie, bluing of the hands is done by gently heating them after they have been re-polished. Usually we use an alcohol burner and put the hands on a screen or copper plate so they are not "fried" at their extremeties during the heating process.

A couple members do this now for anybody who wants it done.