So I have another update for you guys…

I got this email from Rolex today:

Dear np149,

We can confirm we received the package on August 24th. It is now in queue to be entered. Please allow approximately 3-4 weeks for the evaluation to be done. Should you need anything else, please let us know.

So… you know what this means, right?

SAFE THREAD!!

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OP
I’m tracking your thread to learn from your experience and other posters.

I received one of my Dad’s Rolex’s, red & blue GMT, that I plan on wearing most days. I also have a Dateadjust in SS & a “white” face. Both keep poor time and never have been serviced. The GMT went from Dad to middle brother to me. I’m guessing it’s roughly 40yrs old. The Dateadjust is 41yrs old.
So I’ll standby and see how yours turns out.

7mm if you want those vintage watches serviced I used Ridley Watchmakers in Arlington, TX. They specialize in vintage Rolex/Tudor/Omega/etc. Turnaround on my 60's Tudor sub for a complete service was around $1600 as there were quite a few worn out items. It took about two weeks from what I recall as I got it done last year. Keeps great time now.

This.

You want an old 1675 going to a well known Indy.

Ridley
Rik
LAWW
Rolliworks

The later two if you want the case to be NOS.

I would not send vintage to RSC.

So a 40yo Rolex is considered “vintage”?

That hurts my soon to be 58yo self. [img]/images/smilies/smiley_abused.gif[/im]

My goal is to have both watches cleaned to look new and serviced to run accurately. So they could be worn on special occasions and to work on some days.

With that in mind the Independent shops will be looked at and the next question which “winding box” to store them in when not wearing them?

Is send it to Rolliworks then. They will make those look NOS from a case and bracelet standpoint.  

Look at their Instagram. I’ve used them as well.

Hey guys. Thanks for the interest in the thread and for keeping it alive. My buddy has a Coke GMT from the 1980s he bought new from an AD for the princely sum of around $1,100.00. If I only knew then what I know now... He took a chance on a local guy to service it and it worked out for him. He didn't want Rolex returning it to like new because it meant something to him. He earned every knick and scratch on it in his travels around the world. I'm definitely saving the links to the sites you guys are recommending here for future reference. Thank you all!

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I got a brief update. I received a two page confirmation letter yesterday from Rolex. It was a formal confirmation that they had my watch. It listed the make, model, serial number, dial color and bracelet style, along with my chief complaint. It advised that they would send me an actual repair quote as soon as possible.

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Rolex service center is the way to go..  More expensive then local guys, but you know you are not getting aftermarket parts when serviced..
Any aftermarket parts would be considered counterfeit by Rolex when you send it in for service. Biggest thing is aftermarket diamond dials and bezels.

That’s why it’s important to find the independents that are likely not local.  I’d trust certain independents over RSC all day long.  Spend some time on the Rolex forums, every day there’s a complaint about case scratches etc from RSC.  I’m sure it’s a small minority, but the independent guys give more fucks.  Only issue is their ability to order oem Rolex parts now, but I think Rik Dietel mentioned he had a big stash in his parts inventory.

Just keepin' tabs on ya!!!!

I'm in. Just curious.

Thanks guys. I appreciate your input… and the fact that you’re all still in a “safe thread” with me! ??

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@Finslayer83
Can you please provide the complete business names for Ridley and Rik that are referenced. There are a few Ridley's for sure and I think Rik is TimeCare Inc.

Bob : https://watchmakers.com/

And Rik is TimeCareInc.

Huge update! I just got a call from Rolex Service Center. My watch was serviced under warranty!! Woo hoo!! There’s no way that I expected them to do that, but I’m sure glad that they did!

I never received an email from them detailing what they found and seeking permission to perform any work. That’s what I expected to happen, but this is much better!

She said it received their service work, but she couldn’t detail what was done other than a disassembly, cleaning, lubrication and reassembly. It had one very tiny scuff on the bezel and the band had a few desk diving marks. I’m really curious if they polished it up too. I hope so.

She said after it’s passed its final inspection, it will be sent to shipping. Once it’s ready to go, they’ll send me a FedEx tracking number and overnight it back to me. That should be in a few days.

I will post some pictures when I have it in hand.

Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!

So a 9 week turnaround.  

I'm glad your getting it back and the work was done under warranty.

Things have turned out well for you! Can’t wait to see the pictures.

Nice to hear that.

$1000 upside surprise!!  Awesome news

Thanks

Nice!

Yep! Now what to spend it on? ?? ??

I just received the FedEx tracking number. ETA on Monday!

Iiiit'sss baaaack!!

FedEx arrived at 0903! Can't beat that for timing. I took a few unboxing pictures and I have a couple of thoughts about my expectations vs what I received. I'll get to the pictures in a minute, but I just wanted to go over a brief discussion I had over the weekend with my fellow watch buddy.

We were discussing what I expected from Rolex (an email detailing scope of work and asking for authorization) to what actually happened (a phone call saying the work was done). Because of the way I was notified after the fact, we concluded that they had most likely only completed the basic amount of work necessary to get it to CSOC spec and nothing more. Once we got to that point, we speculated that Rolex would most likely just service what was wrong and not complete a full "like new" type of service with a new two year warranty in my name.

We were correct. The watch looks the same on the exterior. The couple of minor scuffs that were present are still there. Setting it felt like it did before; smooth and crisp functioning of the stem and crown.

Overall, I am very satisfied.

I'm currently wearing it and will continue to wear it for a few days to monitor the function. I'm hoping it is good to go for years to come!

Before I get to the pictures, I just wanted to thank you all again for all of your input and support. It was very helpful and valuable to me and I really appreciate it! Thanks!!

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Well anytime it gets back you safely and keeping great time it’s a win.  Save the big refinishing for the one.  Watches that are overly reconditioned and polished to be perfect over time don’t always look as good.  I’ll take a great looking but we’ll worn watch anytime over a gleaming,  perfect case.

I'm inclined to agree with you there. My buddy has a Rolex GMT he bought new in the 1980s. It's been around the world and he was adamant he didn't want those marks polished away when he had it locally serviced. It still has its "character" so to speak.

As for this watch, if they had sent it back polished, I wouldn't have minded it. I would have viewed it as a "blank slate" for me to make my own marks on. As it is, I'll probably use one of my polish cloths on it just to remove the one visible to me small scratch and call it good.

I'm sure I will add to the dings and marks over the years.

Has it been keeping time since you got it?

I hacked it the day I got it back. It is running three seconds slow at the moment. I have been wearing it steadily except to shower and sleep. I plan to keep an eye on it for a couple of weeks at least.

So far, I'm happy.

Awesome, glad to hear. Please let us know how it goes.

So…

Yesterday morning it was running late by five seconds, so I decided to hack it.

I just checked it again and it’s at four seconds slow less than 24 hours after it was hacked.

I know CSOC is a range of plus or minus a handful of seconds and this loss seems to be within it. Before it was serviced, it would easily loose 15-20 seconds overnight, so I am glad it’s not doing that.

I’m going to continue to monitor it to see if it gains time within the spec. My overall experience with it was the watch always lost time. So far, I’m only seeing it move in that direction again.

I’m going to continue to monitor it.

ETA: I forgot that the “Superlative Cronometer” is a higher standard than CSOC. This watch is supposed to be within +2/-2 seconds per day.

So…

I just checked it again. It’s now 14 seconds slow as of 1457 hours. It was hacked at 1140 hours on the 28th. It’s lost 14 seconds over three days give or take. I now have some questions for the hive.

I was discussing this with my buddy today, and he said that it’s okay and not a big deal for a mechanical watch to be that far off, as long as it’s within COSC. I pointed out that it’s supposed to be better than COSC because Rolex. The more we talked, the more clear it became that we had different interpretations of what COSC means.

My understanding (for years) was that -4/+6 of COSC meant that if a watch was properly set to a known time and properly serviced, that it should not deviate more than ten seconds 24 hours later. In other words, if I hack it at noon today, tomorrow at noon, I can hope that it is precisely reading noon. However a time between 11:59:56 and 12:00:06 would be within COSC tolerance. My belief was that the watch should read to within the ten seconds window of the true time. Furthermore, my belief was that on day two, day three, etc., my watch should read somewhere between 11:59:56 and 12:00:06 to be within spec. Now to complicate things, my understanding of the “Superlative Chronometer” spec of +2/-2 reduces that range to between 11:59:58 and 12:00:02. My expectations were to see the time display within that four seconds every day when I checked it.

His assertion is that I am misunderstanding how the specification works. He says that a mechanical watch can lose 4 seconds per day, every day, and still be in spec. He says that my watch losing about 4 seconds every day is within the COSC spec and if it were any other watch, that it would be good enough. Setting aside the higher Rolex standards, his assertion that a mechanical watch can lose 4 seconds a day, every day, and still be “in spec” doesn’t seem right to me.

I have a few other mechanical watches that were always right on or with a few seconds of a hack after a few days. This Rolex is the first one I have owned and it’s the first mechanical watch I’ve not been totally happy with.

Do you guys have any insight into the whole spec thing? Am I wrong?

Thanks.

It's the inconsistentcy I would worry about.  Use a tracking tool and keep track of when it's worn and not worn.  Give it a couple weeks and see where it's at.  

If it's all over the map then you should probably send it in again.

I’ve found with some of my watches, they’ll be 3-5 seconds fast the first day of wind then slow down a few seconds later on.

If you want try giving it a full wind then letting it sit unworn and track the cumulative time lost/gained over 2-3 days. Position of the watch and how it’s worn can impact the time keeping.

Of it was only off 5 seconds a day, I’d just make a habit to wind it and reset time once a week and just accept it and move on with life.

If you want perfect time, your phone does a good job :). Also, Rolex movements typically don’t change the date until 12:00:03-12:00:08 Ive found on nearly everyone ive owned.  I just treat it as a “feature and not a bug”

ETA: I had a 15 year old Seawolf (I bought used) that gained 30 seconds a day.  That was enough for me to get the full service.

That’s what my buddy and I discussed yesterday too. I downloaded a couple of manual watch tracking apps to play with, but I’m also keeping track on the notepad like I had been doing previously. I’m just keeping my eye on it for now.

To answer my own questions above, it turns out that I was wrong and he was right about COSC accuracy. It pains me to admit that. I can’t believe that I got that so wrong. In my defense, most of my mechanical watches have been very accurate, so I never delved into the deep end of the whole accuracy pool.




I have noticed different quirks with the mechanical watches I’ve owned over the years. It’s part of the fun. Looking back, I don’t use a winder, so I would need to manually wind and set watches when switching over. I never hyper focused on accuracy until I noticed this one running slower. It was a factor of “over promises and under delivery” that got me fired up initially.

Last night I dug up the email exchange between Rolex and me and sent them a couple of questions about what I was experiencing. Hopefully I hear something back today. I decided not to wait too long, since it’s clearly and consistently losing more than their advertised two seconds per day. I was considering having it adjusted at the local AD as opposed to sending it back, but I’m going to see what they say first.

In before one of you offer to take it off my hands for destruction!

Every watch I've had serviced (ETA, Omega, Rolex, etc) has been froggy until it settles into its rhythm.

Usually takes a good solid week of wearing non-stop to get it into its groove.

If it's outside of -4/+6 after a week or so I'd send it back for further regulation.

+2/-2 is do able but I've only had one of four hold that spec over the years, the 214270. I need to start tracking the 124060 since it's back home.

Off to do that!

Thanks. That’s all good information. I had decided to give it about two weeks to settle in. I had not worn one of my watches for about a year and a half once. When I got it out, it was sluggish for a week or so before getting its groove back.

I originally planned to track this watch for two weeks. My hope was that it would stop losing time every day and then I was going to hack it at that point. Unfortunately, it’s losing 4-6 seconds per day for the last several days. This is no where near as bad as it was, but I still hate it.

I have a quick update. I received a reply from Rolex by email. It was noncommittal. Basically she said she was sorry and asked me to be patient. She said she was going to forward my request to someone and get back to me.

I also happened to be near an AD today, so I stopped in to get their thoughts. I spoke with the store manager who said they would not service it in the store because of the warranty work. She wants me to send it back to Rolex. She said it was definitely not right and that they would make it right.

I flirted briefly with her and one other employee about trading it in towards a Submariner (they had several used in stock). They offered me a fair price for it. However a few minutes later the gentleman came back up and said that if I can afford it, to just buy the Sub outright and hold onto the Datejust. His point was that the Datejust would hold its value and may even appreciate in the future.

I know he’s right because the other watches I’ve bought have done that to one degree or another. I just can’t justify another one now.

But… they had Submariners! ??

He’s not wrong.

Rising tide floats all boats. The downside is that it kills being able to collect and enjoy the brand any more.

That said, don’t pay inflated prices for a used Sub if they can get you the new reference.

At some point you just gotta say fuck it, wear what you got and keep from worrying about getting the next watch. Years ago I got super obsessed about the perfect collection, just got to be much work trying to keep shit perfect and worrying I didn’t have all my favorites.

Life’s too short to be fussing around with all this shit +4/-6 seconds a day and other watches you want to own, should I trade this or that.