Patek machines the chamfers. Then they finish the chamfers by hand to remove any machining marks and give a final polish. However, sometimes, the machining marks aren’t completely removed. In the case of JLC (on most of their watches), they simply machine the chamfers but don’t finish them by hand a
I was told that when a case is put back through production rather than service polished, they first laser weld any new metal necessary to avoid net material loss and then go through all the minute steps of factory polishing used when the case was first made, thereby duplicating an as-new result. Thi
Patek Geneva examined the watch and agreed that there is a defect in the case finishing that should not have passed QC. They are going to repair the case in a “return to stock” procedure that they claim will put the watch back to new condition, indistinguishable from any other brand new Patek. From
I’m less interested in overall impressions, which are prone to style preferences, and more interested in specific details that folks feel distinguish the quality of finishing execution between one movement and the other.