How To Ghost The Bezel On A Watch

Ghosted bezels are a very sought after trait on vintage watches and are now a growing trend in the watch modding community.

What Is A Ghosted Watch Bezel?

A ghosted bezel is where the bezel of watch has a patina, it’s where the colour is faded from its original colour. As the colour is a lot lighter than the original, it looks a bit like washed out and pale, and of course like a “ghost” version.

How Do Watch Bezels Naturally Become Ghosted?

The ghosting effect is very common on some vintage watches, especially on bezels made from aluminium.  Modern bezels are usually made from ceramics and are less likely to change over time due to their robustness.

A mixture of sunlight and a lot of abrasion from clothes rubbing against the watch cause the colour to drastically fade over a number of years.

This natural patina is really sought after, much in the same way that people love the way dials and lume get that aged look over time.

It adds a very unique look to an already rare watch.

What is Forced Ghosting Of A Watch Bezel?

The price and availability of vintage watches means we can’t all buy one and we also don’t really want to wait decades with the hope that the watches we do own will patina over time.

Modders have found a way to recreate the look very easily and quickly at home. This means you can force any of your bezel to get that ghosted, faded look right now.

DIY Ghosting A Watch Bezel

Modders have worked out a very simple way to make a bezel become ghosted. You can try this yourself, but it is not reversible and you can damage your watch in the process.

The results you get may vary depending on the material your bezel is made from. Aluminium and steel bezels are going to be easier to work with than ceramic.

Your results will also depend on if there is any protective coating on the bezel. If there is, this can make the procedure take a lot longer. I have seen people do this in just a couple of minutes, while others have had to basically wait overnight to see anything happen.

How To Ghost A Bezel

Basically you just need to add bleach to your bezel. How you go about this is up to you. No one seems to have a foolproof method yet.

You just need normal household bleach that is probably in your bathroom and kitchen right now.  Some people water it down with water, while other people just use pure bleach.

Pretty much every one pours bleach into a bowl and then they try and work out how to put the bezel in to this.

Some people will remove the bezel from the rest of the watch and place this in the bleach. Other people will just dunk the whole watch in. If the rest of the watch is stainless steel, it should be okay, although I would feel a little worried about this and would rather remove the bezel.

Then all you have to do is wait.

The bleach will start to eat away at the colour and start to fade it. The amount of time you need to wait will be down to how strong your bleach is and what your bezel is made form.

If you there is strong protective coating, it may take a few hours to eat away at this before it can get down to the coloured paint. If you bezel does not have this it can literally happen within seconds.

When it starts to work you will start to see the bleach change colour as the colour from the bezel leaks out into it.

When To Stop

The main problem with this technique is that everyone seems to go too far. A slight fade of the colour looks super cool, but this technique can very quickly go too far and basically just fully strip the colour. While it is still ghosted, it’s almost too ghosted and personally I don’t like the look of it.

Take It Slow

From what I understand once you see the first signs of the colour leaking into the bleach you should remove it and wash it off.

It seems like the bleach will keep doing its thing until it is fully washed off, so it is very easy for it to go too far.

Personally I wouldn’t even dunk it in the bleach. I would use a cotton bud/Q tip and rub a light layer of bleach on the bezel. I would then leave it for a minute and then wash it off.

I would just keep repeating this until it was faded to the level I wanted. This is going to be slow and will also be hard work. You might also not see anything happen for a while, but I think this slow and gradual approach is going to get you a better result and you are less likely to take it too far.

What Watches To Do This “Ghosting” On?

I think it’s important that you only do this on watches you are comfortable with ruining.

You should really keep this for your cheap watches, or ones that you can easily buy a new bezel for. I wouldn’t even attempt this on anything of value or anything vintage.

This technique can get some cool results, but you are basically damaging your watch and you don’t want to regret your decision. I would think very carefully before trying this!

Conclusion

If you have an old, cheap watch that you don’t really care for or if you can get hold of a spare bezel, you should totally give this technique a go and see if you like the look of a ghosted bezel on your watch .

The bleaching technique is never going to look as good of years of natural aging but it can still look cool and you will probably get a lot of people asking about when you wear the watch. I am certainly going to give it a try with one of my watches.

(You can read more about – How To Change The Bezel On A Vostok Watch)