SOLID BRONZE HELSON PROJECT...let the patina begin!

[mellons]

you should log a "patina diary"- take say 3 images at particular angles every 2 weeks....

[heb]

Hello,
Very striking, that's for sure.

From your pictures, it also probably represents the maximum safe wearing limit on the size-of-watch versus size-of-wrist graph.

Enjoy it.

heb

[E8ArmyDiver]

SIMPLY AMAZING!There was a post recently asking if any of the "Botique" brands will ever be considered "Classic".IMHO the Bronze Shark Divers Peter has put out are INSTANT Classics!Well done Peter!

[tsaojam]

Hope you don't mind me adding to the thread...my bronze bezel brown dial just arrived, and I absolutely love the watch. Put it through the egg treatment already as there's just no way I can wear it all gold and shiny at it's monstrous dimensions. The bronze just works incredibly well with the SD design...

[sheriffd2]

Hope you don't mind me adding to the thread...my bronze bezel brown dial just arrived, and I absolutely love the watch. Put it through the egg treatment already as there's just no way I can wear it all gold and shiny at it's monstrous dimensions. The bronze just works incredibly well with the SD design...

Very nice!!

[bobabreath]

Hope you don't mind me adding to the thread...my bronze bezel brown dial just arrived, and I absolutely love the watch. Put it through the egg treatment already as there's just no way I can wear it all gold and shiny at it's monstrous dimensions. The bronze just works incredibly well with the SD design...

Yes, everyone with bronze SD are invited to post here! Looks unbelieveable! How many minutes with the egg was this?

[Kent108]

Beautiful!!

I voted that you should just wear it and let the patina develop naturally over time. I've always thought artificial methods of giving an item "age" or "wabi sabi" to be silly -- the look only has value to me if I know that I "earned" it. (This is also true for denim, which I believe should come to be dark and very coarse; leather, which should start life creaking, heavy and stiff. None of this sanding things down or intentionally putting the things through dozens of wash cycles.) The same goes for watches -- I think it'll come to mean more to you if you just let the patina develop through life experience.

But that's just me ...

[tsaojam]

Yes, everyone with bronze SD are invited to post here! Looks unbelieveable! How many minutes with the egg was this?

About 15 minutes - I didn't really time myself as from my experience with my Zenton the patina process sort of peaks at a certain point it seems especially when the egg cools down.

I completely agree with Kent108 about letting things develop over time - I think this is the only thing that I make an exception to because otherwise I would never be able to put the watch on! It's really quite blingy brand new and given it's major wrist presence.

[timesofplenty]

Good looking SDb, congrats! The solid bezel is an outstanding addition.
Patina does develop over time, but I think you'll be waiting a while to see any noticeable change occur naturally. Historically, many bronze sculptures were left to develop patina on their own, but many had it applied, so I don't see anything wrong with adding some to our watches.
I have a Kazimon 1500b, and tried the egg first but wasn't satisfied with the result, so used liver of sulphur (sulfur) to treat it. I went with the chunks as that's what the bead-shop near my house had. The chunks go bad quickly when exposed to air and moisture, but a stabilized gel is available, too.



Here's the before shot:



and here's how it looked ~1week ago:





Here's a couple of shots from this AM, you can see it's not much different from last week:

[bobabreath]

Good looking SD, congrats! The solid bezel is an outstanding addition.
Patina does develop over time, but I think you'll be waiting a while to see any noticeable change occur naturally. Historically, many bronze sculptures were left to develop patina on their own, but many had it applied, so I don't see anything wrong with adding some to our watches.
I have a Kazimon 1500b, and tried the egg first but wasn't satisfied with the result, so used liver of sulphur (sulfur) to treat it. I went with the chunks as that's what the bead-shop near my house had. The chunks go bad quickly when exposed to air and moisture, but a stabilized gel is available, too.

That also looks stunning! Definitely looks like it has a stronger effect than the egg. I am not familiar with how to use liver of sulfur. Could you explain more in detail the technique you used?