Watch turned my arm green

rawn

Hi all. I got a watch for Christmas, the person left the tags on and included a gift receipt so I could bring it back to get resized if necessary, so I know that the watch was €95. I only started wearing it mid-Jan, and it's turned my arm green! My mam recently bought a watch from the same store for €65 and her arm has also turned green. I'm really annoyed as i feel that a watch at that price should be of decent enough quality. Since I've been wearing it a few weeks now and gotten it resized (in another store, as it turns out the original store don't do resizing) i feel I'm stuck with it. Do I have any consumer rights to a refund? An exchange would be useless as the next watch would be of the same bad quality.

L1011

You have a reaction to the metal - your mother having the same is not unexpected. It has nothing to do with the quality of the watch, only the materials in it.

You have no right to a refund, or a replacement/repair for this. Additionally, as it was a gift you have zero consumer rights anyway - gift receipts are a service of the shop and generally solely extent to store credit if unwanted and unused.

There are tutorials on how to seal the exposed metal surfaces to prevent the chemical reaction if you want to.

rawn

L1011 wrote:

You have a reaction to the metal - your mother having the same is not unexpected. It has nothing to do with the quality of the watch, only the materials in it.

Really?? I had always thought that cheap jewelry (such as the Penneys jewelry) cause the reaction. The metal is gold, i have other gold jewelry that don't turn my skin green. Interesting... Thanks for the info!

Skerries

you should be able to wear silver or gold with no problems as this happens to my mother as well
it may just be gold plated and not real gold if it was only €95

machiavellianme

It's not pure gold since (a) that would be prohibitively expensive and (b) it's a difficult material to work with and maintain. Whatever makes up the rest of the alloy is what is causing the reaction.
Copper tends to do the same to me.

sadie1502

Perfume or fake tan can also react. Paint some clear nail Polish on it to protect it.

L1011

rawn wrote: »

Really?? I had always thought that cheap jewelry (such as the Penneys jewelry) cause the reaction. The metal is gold, i have other gold jewelry that don't turn my skin green. Interesting... Thanks for the info!

Its the other metals in with the gold (gold is inherently non-reactive) - pure gold is ridiculously soft and completely inappropriate for a high wear item like a watch. Dearer brands can use the same metals in the mix. Additionally, cheaper items are more likely to be 9 carat which is under 40% gold; dearer items are likely to be 18 or 22 carat (75% or 91%) and hence have less other metals.

If its from an actual jewellers or a retailer that otherwise has a specialty in it, expect to be told the same thing. If its a general retailer, expect to be told you've no consumer rights basically.

rubadub

rawn wrote: »

Really?? I had always thought that cheap jewelry (such as the Penneys jewelry) cause the reaction. The metal is gold, i have other gold jewelry that don't turn my skin green. Interesting... Thanks for the info!

I know someone who has the same reaction, it happens with lower carat gold but not higher carat. I do believe they were not fakes or anything, reputable source but low carat gold, I think 9, they would joke about needing 18+carat gold. I guess some might use different other metals to mix/alloy it with, I know copper will cause greening in some people.

Damien360

Reaction to high nickel content in cheaper gold jewellery is very common but unlikely to cause a green colour, that's copper content. Nickel reaction is usually itchy with some red blotches.

KingBrian2

Contact the manufacturer. This is could be rally bad. They need to be informed.

davo10

Acids in skin secretions/sweat react with copper in jewellery to form a salt which is green. It won't do any harm but can temporarily colour your skin. You said you had it resized, try loosening it if you can so that it doesn't press so tight against your skin and cause a residue to form under it.

Less expensive jewellery will tend to have higher cheap metal content, more expensive will tend to have more precious metal content.

Stheno

I've a copper ring which I occasionally wear, which turns my finger green.

Most likely it's what you are reacting to.

No watch that is 95 euro is going to be pure or even high content gold.

L1011

KingBrian2 wrote: »

Contact the manufacturer. This is could be rally bad. They need to be informed.

It's not. They'll give the same answer