Horological Meandering

i remember a while back, some gentleman took his titanium panerai and i believe soaked it in some solution (oxygen rich comes to mind.. like oxyclean or something) and then after a short while of soaking the titanium naturally darkened...

would anyone here be as knowledgeable to properly tell me how i could darken titanium slightly? i know more than likely just on the surface but i have an idea... and the thoughts of that post are making me think but i cannot seem to find it aywhere..

-riley

read that oxyclean advanced the oxidation but could harm rubber like the gaskets in watch..

is their anything that would still oxidize the titanium without putting so much harm on gaskets like maybe hydrogen peroxide? or chlorine from pool?

i know chlorine breaks down the bonds on rose gold to give the outermost layer more of a yellow gold appearance... maybe it would affect titanium?

I had seen something about a pot of boiling water with oxy-clean in the past as well, but i seem to remember it being done with a fully disassembled watch, so the gaskets and crystal were all out...

I would assume that the solution might harm any anti-reflective coating on the crystal, as well, given how sensitive those manner of coatings seem to be... a pot of boiling peroxide is probably not good for them....

im guessing less reactive but would it still do the job or pretty much nothing?

i'm trying to find where I had seen it... Paneristi maybe?

it was oxyclean in heated water.. but many people say that it severly dries out the titanium and it needs oil after and also dries out the rubber gaskets

anything else out there that would oxidize the titanium without causing harm to rubber gaskets?

on an assembled watch.
If you insist, have a watchmaker take everything apart so you can work on a naked case.
Anything that will oxidate the titanium will do bad things to the gaskets.
If you absolutely need to have the case darker, why not a discussion with the maker of the watch if they couldn't supply you with a watch in such a case from the factory?
Don

...so they wont, i was looking for an alternative to PVD.. that would be easy... guess their really isn't a safe/easy approach without having to disassemble...

if i was going to disassemble it i would just send out for PVD or get TiAIN coated purple :-D

I am interested in what they have to say.

Anything reactive enough to oxidise Ti is going to be pretty aggressive on the seals, requiring disassembly. Though that is a simple matter.

As for "drying out" the titanium, I don't get that.

Have you tried a black texta?

i think spray paint would be above that in choices.

i was just looking for something to darken it slightly.. like it would with age, but just advanced.

i spoke to a dealer about PVD'ing last year and they said that Panerai wont even service a watch movement if the case has been altered whether its in warranty or out of it. that isnt really a problem as most of Panerai's movements are pretty basic generic swiss items. might be a problem for their OP 2002 onwards calibres which i understand are in-house.