Microscratches from gentle watch cleaning?

Post date: 2021-10-20 07:25:42

I recently bought a nice watch, and I've been incredibly careful with it. Part of the case is made from polished titanium. A few days ago, I decided to clean the polished surfaces with a microfiber glasses cloth and no solvents. To my surprise, when viewed under a harsh LED light, this cleaning attempt clearly left a number of very fine hairline scratches on the metal.

I should stress that these "scratches" are largely invisible in most lighting and only come out in full when I have my desk lamp on. They also don't necessarily bother me. What I'd like to know, though, is why this happened in the first place and whether it's expected. I'm surprised that a microfiber cloth could leave these kinds of (very) faint marks. Maybe this was caused by whatever microscopic grit was trapped in the sweat/oil from my hands? If that's the case, should I assume that there's no perfect way to clean a watch and that I ought to stop thinking about it? I want to know if I did something incorrectly, but Googling this issue produces little to no results. (Maybe nobody else is nitpicky enough to see or care about these marks, but knowing the watch community, I kind of doubt that.)

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