Bronze Watches Quickly Lose Their Luster. That’s Why People Like Them

It takes education and imagination to see a new bronze watch and imagine what it will look like in a few years. The initial beauty of bronze may appeal to people who are familiar with other case materials such as gold. The metal has a golden hue. There is a bronze that looks dirty or muddy due to oxidation and skin contact. The highest form of personalization is dull.

Patina is a divisive person. There are online watch forums dedicated to removing it and discussions about how to accelerate it, which watch brands advise against. The process behind the discoloration is something that those who know what they are getting into know.

Philip Martin, an avid collector who shares watch images on his social media accounts, says that he likes the patinated color better than the shiny new bronze. I almost didn't get my Bronze because it was so shiny. I gave it a try because I knew it was going to change quickly. Every watch will have a different look. Martin says owners should wear bronze watches instead of sitting in a safe oxidizing out of sight.

Tudor, a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, has found that preparing its staff helps attract clients. The sales associates needed to be trained specifically for this watch to set consumer expectations. The brand populated some boutiques with displays about how this particular alloy ages.

The technical alloy used in the naval industry for parts that spend extended periods of time underwater is what makes the Black Bay Bronze and Black Bay Fifty-Eight Bronze models. This particular alloy was developed to protect it from oxidation.

This means that Tudor's watches will start to lose their shine in a single week. A couple of years of experience selling these watches has shown that people like being able to see change quickly.

Tudor's bronze pieces tend to have many other watches before they dip into the material. He says it could be their third, fourth, or fifth.

The co-founder and president of the international watch-collecting community RedBar Group has a collection of bronze watches. He likes the idea of wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic that embraces the flaws of life.

Personalization is not the only thing that Martin and Craniotes have in common. They like participating in it. If Martin wanted to buy a timepiece he couldn't get any other way, they'd buy preowned watches with patina. Craniotes might "reset" it on a watch with ketchup, though not recommended by brands, because he values the temporality of it.

The powerhouse preowned luxury watch emporium that continues to open collector's lounges around the world has about 50 bronze watches. A team at Watchbox inspects and cleans watches before they are put into use. The character isn't broken.

A senior client adviser at WatchBox says that there has been a surge in bronze watches over the last few years. It sparked a revolution for the material that had mostly been on the fringes.

There are similarities between the personal nature of watch collecting and the development of patina.

He says that they have seen watches that look like bright and shiny gold to pieces that seem to emerge from a wreck. These watches are destined for a specific buyer on the secondary market. The buyer knows that the chemical process behind it all creates truly one-of-a-kind cases.