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Thread: Melting "pleather" watch boxes.

  1. #1
    Grand Master Neil.C's Avatar
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    Melting "pleather" watch boxes.

    Not seen a thread on this before so I thought I'd start one.

    A lot of stuff lately made of "pleather" or that super soft rubbery plastic seems to spontaneously melt after a few years.

    The worst offender has been my Fortis Cosmonaute box which has got so horrible bits of gooey fake leather seem to drop off and the whole thing has become so messy I keep it in a clear plastic bag!

    Some of my Omega boxes have suffered very slightly and others not at all.

    Some of the Tags seem to flake and crack up but at least aren't like molten lava!

    In a similar vein, an electronic guitar tuner I have used for a few years has now started to go sticky - where will it end!

    Pics below.

    Anyone else have examples?












    Cheers,
    Neil.

    My Speedmaster website:

    http://www.freewebs.com/neil271052

  2. #2
    Master
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    No examples but for companies to cheap out on presentation boxes using cheap materials for so called luxury goods seems disingenuous.

  3. #3
    Master Man of Kent's Avatar
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    I once had a sofa that did that. Nasty.

  4. #4
    Craftsman RS404's Avatar
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    I had a Longines dark blue box that disintegrated pretty quickly, disappointing, looked really nice when I got it.

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    Grand Master Neil.C's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jk103 View Post
    No examples but for companies to cheap out on presentation boxes using cheap materials for so called luxury goods seems disingenuous.
    I don't think they were necessarily cheaping out John, I guess they thought they looked great when new. I reckon some chemical reaction over time has affected this sort of soft leatherette stuff.

    Rolex stuff in hard old plastic is always alright though.
    Cheers,
    Neil.

    My Speedmaster website:

    http://www.freewebs.com/neil271052

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Neil.C View Post
    Rolex stuff in hard old plastic is always alright though.
    Agreed, but their service pouches are utter tat.

    Amazingly some people actually try to sell them on the internet...even on our very own SC... for more than a fiver!!!
    Shameless.

  7. #7
    Grand Master dkpw's Avatar
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    I've not had a watch box melt but this happened to the "pleather" on my Roberts D50 DAB Radio. This is now 10 years old but the first spots appeared only a couple of years after purchase. I contacted Roberts who were not in the slightest bit interested in assisting me getting it recovered. There are many reports of this happening to other peoples' radios too.


  8. #8
    Master Top Cat's Avatar
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    I have that exact Robert's radio and the same thing has started happening to mine!

  9. #9
    Grand Master Neil.C's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dkpw View Post
    I've not had a watch box melt but this happened to the "pleather" on my Roberts D50 DAB Radio. This is now 10 years old but the first spots appeared only a couple of years after purchase. I contacted Roberts who were not in the slightest bit interested in assisting me getting it recovered. There are many reports of this happening to other peoples' radios too.


    That's horrible!

    Not seen that on a Roberts before. Shocking they are doing nothing.

    My theory is that some years ago a plastic material was developed that had the nicer attributes of leather over plastic i.e softer and feeling better. Companies dived in and used it for a variety of things before finding out some years later that the aforesaid material breaks down over time and flakes off and/or turns into a gooey mess.

    Apropos of this I emailed Fortis yesterday. I don't suppose anything will be done but at least I have complained.
    Cheers,
    Neil.

    My Speedmaster website:

    http://www.freewebs.com/neil271052

  10. #10
    Craftsman
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    As soon as i saw this thread I thought...oh that'll be the Roberts Radio plague then. We have a real leather covered one in the kitchen but the others we have had, now all replaced with Bluetooth enabled radios, were appalling for this pleather scabbing and peeling.

  11. #11
    Grand Master dkpw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Top Cat View Post
    I have that exact Robert's radio and the same thing has started happening to mine!
    Yes British Racing Green with scabby bits. It looks like a plague of moths have eaten it but it's clearly a defect, possibly like Neil suggests.
    At least the sound is still excellent, but it's too horrible for anywhere but the kitchen window sill so no matter if it even gets damp or snowed on.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Man of Kent View Post
    I once had a sofa that did that. Nasty.
    My mother had a 3 pc suite in the 70s that did this - had to be covered very quickly I think Parker Knoll even helped with the covers. Whenever they came off for washing there were loads of bits in them.

  13. #13
    Craftsman AllyWheels's Avatar
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    I've had this happen to the pleather innards of an otherwise beautiful wooden IWC watch box.
    The coating on the watch cushion turned to a gooey flaky mess.
    It's puzzling to think that several high end watch manufacturers still use the crap.

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