Recently there has been a rise in popularity in bronze watches. It seems like every watch brand is releasing more and more bronze options. They seem to be rather divisive among collectors, causing them to either totally love them or absolutely hate them.
If you are wondering if you should get one, the simple answer is… If YOU like the watch and like the idea of bronze and like that will age and change appearance, then do it. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Always buy a watch for yourself, not for what anyone else thinks.
Options
While not every watch brand has bronze offerings, it does seem like the options are increasing. It feels like more and more brands are releasing bronze watches. This just tells me they are getting more and more popular which is always a good thing.
A lot of brands are also releasing bronze versions of watches they already sell. Just think of watches like the Tudor Black Bay, it now comes in a bronze option.
While this extra choice is amazing, it can also make the decision process harder. We really are spoiled for choice sometimes!
Dive Watches
The overall majority of bronze watches are dive style watches. The bronze theme just works very well with dive watches. Bronze has a rich history of being linked with nautical equipment, such as those big old dive helmets used back in the 19th century.
However, I have seen quite a lot of pilot watches now being offered in bronze and I think it works really well. You will also not really find bronze dress watches as the colour doesn’t look quite right in a more formal setting. Bronze can often look “dirty” and it’s just not elegant enough for a dress watch and is much more suited for a tool watch.
Bronze Gives You A Different Look
Bronze watches can be a really interesting addition to you collection. When I look over at my own collection it’s just a sea of stainless steel. Having those brown tones of bronze would really open up a whole new world of options and looks I could experiment with. Having that extra diversity could really elevate your wardrobe options.
It’s also not as flashy as gold or rose gold and instead has more earthy tones, which is always a nice alternative.
Patina
A bronze watch is going to age. You need to be very aware of this before you buy one.
They can start quite shiny and a little similar to a rose gold colour. This is how it will look in the pictures and how it will look in the shop, but it will change and you need to be prepared for this.
They will darken over time and this ageing process is what draws people to them. it is all part of the magic of owning a bronze watch. How it ages will depend on how you wear it and also how the watch was made. Every brand uses a slightly different type of bronze, causing slightly a different patina.
This means that your watch is going to age in a very unique way. No two bronze watches will ages exactly the same or at the same rate. Again, this is part of the magic of owning a bronze watch and why collectors love them.
Bronze Hides Scratches
In general, bronze is a softer metal than steel so your watch is more likely to scratch.
However, this is really not a bad thing. Little scratches can add to the uniqueness of the watch along with like the patina.
The patina can also camouflage a lot of the scratches, they sort of blend in and all become one, adding to the charm of the watch.
This is further helped by most bronze watches being tool watches. The aging and scratching just make the watch look like it is used and loved.
(You can read more about – Should You Worry About Scratches On A Watch?)
What Is A Bronze Watch?
Bronze is mostly made up of copper mixed with other metals. Usually it is mixed with tin or aluminium but can also contain other things like manganese or phosphorus. The exact quantities and ratios used can vary and will produce slightly different types of bronze.
Watch companies do not exactly say what there bronze is made form. They tend to keep their mix a secret.
However, since they don’t want too much corrosion, they probably use a little more aluminium than other types of bronze. It’s guestimated that there is around 10% aluminium in the average mix used for watches.
Generally you will find that the more aluminium that is added results in a more dull, grey looking bronze. If there is less, the bronze will be more shiny and gold looking.
If you look at different brands bronze offerings you will see that there are slight colour differences between them for this exact reason, even before they have started to age and patina.
Why Do Bronze Watches Change Colour?
The simplest answer is that it’s a chemical reaction. Basically the surface of the watch is reacting with the air and water around it and oxidising.
This is something you cannot stop. If you do not want your watch to change colour, buy a gold watch, as bronze is going to change! (This is why some people hate bronze watches)
However, you can reverse the aging and restore your watch to that shiny new look again. Basically your remove the oxidised layer that is on the surface and expose the bronze underneath that will look like the original colour again.
But of course, this is just going to age again, you ant stop it. This means you will be refreshing it back to its original colour every few weeks which is not ideal. You should only buy a bronze watch if you are happy for it to change colour over time.
Turning Green
The bronze should mostly just darken in colour. It can sometimes go green, but this usually depends on what you expose the watch to and for how long. The green is just copper chloride and is caused by the copper in the bronze reacting with whatever it has been exposed with.
If green areas do form on the watch you can usually remove them quite easily. Even a quick wipe with a cloth under hot water should get rid of most of the green parts, so it shouldn’t really be able to build up.
Why Is The Case Back Not Bronze?
If you look at any bronze watch, you will see the case back is usually stainless steel, while this isn’t the best contrast of colours to look at, it does serve a purpose.
The case back will of course be in contact with your skin and is more likely to be in contact with moisture from your skin. This is much more likely to cause the copper to react and create the green copper chloride. This doesn’t look great and also stains the skin, which no one wants.
Watch makers get around this by simply designing the watch so that underside is made from stainless steel (which will not tarnish) and none of the bronze surfaces actually touch the skin.
This is also why you don’t really see bronze bracelets, and if you do they are lined with stainless steel on the inside to prevent them going green.
How Quickly Will A Bronze Watch Age?
This is a hard question to answer and it is very much “it depends”.
It will depend how much you wear the watch and what you do with it. More importantly what you expose to it will have a huge effect. If you are swimming in the sea for example, it will affect it differently than if you are not.
Your general environment (such as the humidity levels) will also play a role in how fast it ages as well as what mix of bronze the watch has actually been made with.
You can often start seeing changed within a few days, probably after a month you should see significant changes and certainly after 2 months you should be able to tell things have changed, but again, it depends what you are doing with the watch.
Speed It Up
There are numerous tricks and tips on how to speed the process up. Some sound crazy, but you can watch youtube videos of people doing it. People soak their watches in different things like milk, ammonia, mashed up boiled eggs and chlorinated pools. After a few hours their watches have reacted with whatever they are soaked in and look very aged.
Each technique can give you different results and can look different than letting it naturally do its thing. Quickly aging a bronze watch is like a whole sub niche on its own!
Reversing it
Luckily you can reverse the aging. As it is just an oxidised layer on the surface of the watch you can remove this with any sort of weak acid. A commonly used technique is mixing baking soda with lemon juice and using it to scrub your watch back to its original colour.
Let It Do It Naturally
If I had to suggest an option, I would say it’s probably best to just let it do its own thing. It’s going to age anyway, so just let it do it and enjoy watching it change. If you want to try the fast techniques you can look them up and see their individual pros and cons, but why rush it. Just let it happen.
Document The Changes
If you do get a bronze watch I would highly recommend you try and document its journey. I would take pictures at regular intervals. Maybe set a weekly alarm on your phone and take a quick picture once a week for the first few months.
I think you will be really amazed when you look a back at the watch and see how it naturally aged over time.
Straps To Go With A Bronze Watch
Something to be aware of is the lack of straps. Well, more strap hardware.
Most straps come with stainless steel buckles and it can be hard to find straps with bronze buckles.
If you do managed to find one, it might be a different bronze to the watch head. This will mean it will age and patina slightly differently than the watch itself.
You will find that most brands offer a bronze strap with the watch. It will come with the matching hardware. If things become really bad you can always buy a strap and swap out the buckles and add the bronze one you got with the watch onto your new strap.
I don’t think people worry too much about this. Having your buckle a slightly different bronze colour really doesn’t affect things too much, but it is still something to be aware of.
Conclusion
Should you get one? Yes. Absolutely.
Most watches are going to slowly age over decades and you really will not notice it. To be able to have a watch change and age within a few weeks is so cool. I know not everyone is comfortable with that, but I would still suggest you at least give it a try and see what you think of it.
It’s an interesting and unique type of watch that add diversity and interest to your collection and if you can find one you like the look of, you should totally get it.
(You can read more about – The Different Types Of Watches You Can Get)
Ian is the main writer at Horology Dream and is a lover all things watch related.
He has been a watch collector for over a decade and brings his knowledge and experience to this site to help you on your own watch collecting journey.
You can connect with him on Social media and talk anything watches or read more about him on his Author Page.
