How do you sterilize a Rolex?

[Oystersteel92]

Originally Posted by Subfiend

Yes, I know it's a stupid question, but I have to know. How do you sterilize a watch (or three) that has been subjected to dead rat funk for a week?

I took my kids on vacation last week and, because I procrastinate terribly and I don't have a safe installed in my new house yet, I put a bunch of my watches in the safest place I could think of -- under the substrate in my son's python enclosure. I was in a hurry and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

My wife came out to join me two days later and she fed the python a live rat before she left. Except she did not know the python wasn't hungry. Rather than eat the rat, the snake killed it and left it to decompose, which it did, right on top of my Daytona, Ex II and TT Blue Sub. I found the dead, gooey rat there this morning. I threw it away, and now I have to figure out a way to clean the watches.

Bleach comes to mind, but that could be too harsh. Anti-bacterial soap could be too mild. Any ideas? Thanks.

Dawn, warm water and a soft bristle toothbrush are what I normally use to clean my Rolexes.

Incidentally, the only time I've had to clean jewelry that came off a decomposed corpse I used the exact same thing, though I had to do it outside to handle the smell, and I used very hot water with a dip in rubbing alcohol at the end. ME didn't clean them, just put it all in an evidence bag and handed it to me.