What's the best way to clean a marquasite watch?

Question

The watch was my mother's, it's over 30 years old in perfect working condition, it just looks dull, the sparkle from the stones has gone The face of the watch has a circle of marquasite around it and the entire band is marquasite. I can't use anything liquid on the watch face. Anyone got any ideas?

Answer 1

To know how to clean it, you must understand what you have. Marcasite is a form of iron pyrite mined primarily in Switzerland. Marcasite can only be cut by hand, and it is cut in very tiny pieces. If you've ever seen a piece of marcasite that is not set in jewelry (i.e., a stone that has fallen out of an earring or someting) you'll know what I mean when I say TINY.

Because marcasite is so small, it cannot be set by prongs like most stones are. Marcasite is only set with an apoxy, and the apoxy happens to be water soluable.

Therefore, you do not want to get marcasite jewelry wet a lot. You also do not want to dip it in a jewelry cleaner. You can lose your stones very very very easily.

The best thing to use on marcasite is a polishing cloth. Marcasite is almost always set in sterling silver, so I'm assuming that's what you have. Be careful scrubbing near the stones, as you do not want to lose any.

If that doesn't work, take it to a jeweler. They have sonic cleaners which won't harm jewelry to clean.

Once it is clean, take care of it. After you wear sterling silver, you should always wipe your body oils off of it with a polishing cloth. Silver tarnishes due to your body oils mixed with air. After it's wiped off, store your watch in an airtight Ziplock baggie. Without being exposed to air and without body oils, your jewelry will remain beautiful each time you wear it.

Answer 2

Marcasite Watches