service parts question

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Paedipod

·Feb 2, 2025

Chatting with a friend who is a lover of modern Rolex but was shown a 5513 and was told by the (reputable) vendor that it had a service dial. Here is a phone pic that he sent me that shows the dial. I do not have any other pictures. My question is really can you tell a service dial just by looking at it while still in the watch? For reference the watch is L serial.

another parts question (from same friend). If a 16750 bezel insert does not fit, does it automatically mean that it is not a factory part, i.e. fake?

 

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Dan S

·Feb 2, 2025

I don't know how anyone could say much about the dial from that photo, the compression artifacts are awful. However, if the seller says it's a service dial, he would probably know because he probably has some history on the watch. Maybe he installed the service dial, or bought it from someone who installed the service dial.

Regarding inserts, they often require massaging.

 

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Paedipod

·Feb 2, 2025

Agree that the phone pic is not helpful, maybe I should be asking this differently as his ask was not really what I was curious about. Are there specific "tells" that show a service dial compared to one that came with the watch originally? I don't know if there is service paperwork available but I will relay the question, and the answer about the insert (thanks)

 

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Dan S

·Feb 2, 2025

I don't think that these later WGS 5513 dials have been studied to the same extent as earlier models, because they are not as collectible and a service dial that is very similar to the original dial probably won't affect value very much. You may need to do some research with other examples, and for that you will need good photos for comparison.

 

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Canuck

·Feb 2, 2025

That dial has applied markers. The original dial didn’t use these markers. The markers were luminous, and applied right to the dial. Image courtesy Bob’s watches.

 

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Dan S

·Feb 2, 2025

Canuck

That dial has applied markers. The original dial didn’t use these markers. The markers were luminous, and applied right to the dial. Image courtesy Bob’s watches.

In the 80s, the 5513 had white-gold-surround hour markers. The OP didn't provide enough information to date the watch, but I am assuming it's from that era. Obviously, if the watch is earlier, then it's easy to know that the dial is not original. Still you bring up a good point, and it would be helpful to have the first few digits of the serial number from between the lugs.

 

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DeepBlue

·Feb 2, 2025

Exactly.

Since this is a L serial number the white gold markers are correct.

Edited: Feb 2, 2025