Nickel plating on an old watch case

A. Hello Dadong,

I'm doing refinishing job on all type of watch everyday I do all type of plating also.

First of all tell us what is the base metal?

You should strip old nickel before you do any other plating. If you don't have stripping solution then use emery paper and you should polish like mirror.

Below are details to know which metal needs which type of plating before gold plating.

1.Base metal brass or copper for best plating use bright acid copper if you have or alone bright nickel will work.

2.Base metal SS will need wood nickel stick then acid copper then bright nickel.

3.Base metal zinc diecast needs cyanide copper,acid copper and bright nickel.

4.Base metal lead needs to activator then cyanide copper,acid copper then bright nickel.

Why I'm advising acid copper in #2 it because it gives more shining in small areas of watch, if you do nickel stick you can also move to bright nickel not a problem.

I hope this will help you.

A. You can remove nickel with sandpaper if you have right equipment, only back but inside of case it is impossible.

Can you tell me the color of that base metal.

Yes I do strip and do refinishing on watch, I do job it is really very hard and takes time b'coz my customer watch's are very old and it need to repair etc etc so I have to work like I'm making new watch.

It's sounds that you have made your own solution to strip Au & Ni. Which solution you have used to strip gold and nickel, I advice you buy from supplier they can support you & also if any problem you face you can tell them.

There are method to replate but u'll not get right finishing without removing old coating. If old coating is ok then you can do plating.

I have not yet check about lead or 70%lead pewter or lead free pewter.
It depends on design of watch case but normally I do 1-3 microns cyanide copper.

Hello, Dipen, Thank you for your advice.

It seems it is a only method to remove or strip all the old plated layers. I have to abandon this case because there is too complex surface and too many plated layers.

I have one gold and two nickel strip solutions from supplier, they work good. Also I have others I made myself. I feel that stripping from old jewelry is very difficult.

A. Hi Marco. I'm not quite sure exactly what you mean by asking what the process would be. The short answer is that there are plating shops almost everywhere who will undertake the process for you if that's what you mean. If you are asking how do you do it yourself, well, you strip the old plating, clean the case, activate it, then electroplate it from a solution of Watts' bright nickel. But this is not trivial -- there are entire books just on nickel plating and countless books on electroplating in general (Dipen has explained that the first several steps will depend on what the case is made of). Plus, I'm not sure that nickel plating would really be appropriate for a watch in England these days. White bronze plating followed by rhodium plating might be more what you are looking for.

You sort of could do it yourself but it's an expensive proposition and some intense learning is needed before you could start. So I'd urge you to talk to a plating shop. Good luck.

Regards,