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I have met ben sin on three separate occasions and bought from him on one occasion several years ago. He is a young man not atypical of the easy-going, make-a-living average joe. He has been selling as a private dealer (no store front) and wholesaler (buy-and-sell trade between dealers) for ages, and his heavily-preferred clientele are overseas buyers outside of HK. He has relatively strong pricing and has been refining his sales descriptions progressively through the years, especially as words like 'colour-matched' and 'laser-welded' and the dreaded 'unpolished' have increasingly become very taboo. I personally do not have any issue/qualms with him as both a seller and a buyer.
Trav, to address your original question, patina is not 'accelerated', but in fact instantly altered/enhanced. There are two methods to do so WITHOUT a relume, one that has been around for a significant amount of time, the other a more recent development. These methods are irreversible and almost undetectable without substantial experience in examining lume shape, texture, colour etc. I would venture to say this - perfect, matching, dark original lume is possible and extremely low cost to accomplish. However, it requires exceptional skill and time to perfect. Enough said here.
As buyers, bottom line is now more importantly than ever - do your homework, and buy what you like. There is no substitute for holding and viewing a watch in-person, as difficult and rare a chance as that may be when it comes to vintage rolex. I personally buy the watch over the seller, and only because - you wear the watch, and not the seller, on your wrist.
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