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Horological Meandering

Gold is softer than steel, but the good news is...

 

...it takes a lot less effort to polish out fine scratches on polished surfaces on gold with a Cape Cod cloth than on steel.  This is a little like acrylic crystal vs. sapphire.  The former scratches easily but can be polished up quite readily as well.  The latter is hard and tough, but will need replacing if scratched.

My experience on platinum: it has about the same hardness as steel, and is most definitely harder than gold.

The softest metal commonly used on watches is grade 2 titanium.  It can pick up scratches most readily if it is not treated or coated for scratch resistance.  On the other hand, grade 5 Ti is harder than common 316L steel.

Blue

  

 

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