Hi everyone, I’m about to buy my first Rolex, a perpetual 1002, simple but elegant.

I’ve my eye on this one.. However I’m not sure: 1) if it was repainted/redial, as the dial looks to clean? 2)the crown is gold while the bezel is silver, I never seen a 1002 from factory with crown and bezel with different tones... was the crown changed?

Anything else to be concerned?

Thanks

 

You should be worried if there are no case back and/or movement photos...

...and it looks like a redial to me, though I'm not a Rolex expert.

 

My concerns would be......Serviced? Price? Plus Tony C above.

 

This watch is in my local preowned watch store, where I normally buy my watches - I trust them. Price: 2800 euros, serviced. However the dial and the crown raised some doubts on me.. it looks very nice, and I’m/was considering to pull the trigger on it..

 

overpolished case, questionable dial to say the least (printing looks off but you can't be sure with those pictures; oxidised hands but no oxidisation on dial or hands?), a crown which screams out of place and no movement pictures on a watch advertised as serviced?

They can be very attractive watches, so I am sure you can locate a significantly better piece for that kind of money.

 

And what’s with the little chrono24 logos on the pictures?

 

They have a local page, however they sell on the C24 too. The quality of the pictures are better there than the local site..

 

it's also on c24
still no movement pic

 

I've had two (not 1002, but an Air-King and Oyster Date) from similar era - the dial looks at least 'touched up', IMHO, but I am far from an expert. Still above what I would pay for a 1002 if dial was original, unless there was some sort of provenance, but I'm also not huge on tu-tone like this.

 

Well, this shows that despite hours and hours studying 50’s, 60’s and 70’s Rolex dials, I still have a long way to go. My first impression was that the dial was okay.

Now, with the above comments, I’m not so sure. It’s true, in order to really judge the writing, we need a higher resolution photo. But, if it’s a redial, it’s a good one.

That said, I agree that the crown is very likely wrong and the case is quite polished. (It would be nice to see a photo of the lug holes straight on.)

Even if it were correct, I agree that the price is no amazing deal.

I’d wait for a 1002 with a dial to love. They exist, aren’t that rare, and are worth the wait.

 

Same here until - and this may just be my eyes/the photos available - I noticed the tops and bottoms of some letters seem very lightly 'smudged', is the only word I can think of - I've seen that effect on a good number of 60s/70s models that were cleaned or restored by top tier folks; it seems almost inevitable on some. IF work was done, it seems to have been by someone fairly competent, unlike many out there. But like I say it could also just be my eyes + only seeing it via photo.

And everyone who has mentioned seeing the mvm't totally makes sense to me, FWIW

 

To give some perspective, I recently bought an excellent, unpolished gilt dial 1002 for around the same price this one is listed for. That was from a dealer as well and I don't think I got a particularly good deal, I just really liked the watch.

This example isn't worth bothering with for all the reasons listed above.

 

Thank you all, very helpful

 

It was very common to have a dial repainted in this era. A dial replacement could only be done at a Rolex boutique and back then they would only be found in large metropolitan areas. A local watch maker could repaint the dial for a fraction of the cost and for a fraction of the wait time to get a new dial from the big city. Keep in mind that Rolex was a tool watch and never a collector piece back then. No one cared about polished lugs, if it was a Mark 1 or Mark 2 dial, if the dial was repainted or of the hands and crown were swapped out. They just wanted it to tell time.

 

The answer to the question will be?