Should I Send This To Rolex?

Dan S

I don't think anyone is arguing that Rolex doesn't have the right to set their own terms. But IMO, their policies are incredibly lame, arrogant, greedy, authoritative and insensitive to their customer's needs and desires. With the slightest inclination and effort, they could do much better, despite their false claims. So yes ... I would say it's a cop out.

Archer

I do it every day mate. I stabilize lume all the time on vintage watches, and I fully warranty my work. This isn't some risky rare procedure that only a few people do - watchmakers all over the world do this every single day. Service centers just choose not to do this simple procedure, so they just replace the hands or dial.

You may believe that what Rolex chooses is all fair and good practice, and if you feel that way, it matters not to me really. You do whatever you wish with your watches - you can smash them with a hammer if you like. But let's not pretend that Rolex is acting in the customer's best interests here, because they are certainly not.

Service centers take short cuts all the time for the sake of saving a few minutes here or a few minutes there. This is why they replace entire mainspring barrels instead of just the spring, and for the most part waste the barrel drum, barrel cover, and barrel arbor. This is why instead of bushing a worn hole in a plate, the replace the entire plate. Burnishing rough pivots - nope they just replace the wheel. Watchmakers who work in service centers have hard won skills that they are not really allowed to use, because the brand policies turn them into parts replacers.

Rolex certainly has the right to service the watches however they want to, which is why people who are considering sending a watch there need to understand that Rolex is looking after their own interests, not the interests of the watch owner. If you want to argue that people shouldn't be informed of what may happen to their valuable vintage watch when they send it to the brand, well we will disagree on that stance until the end of time...

Archer

All mechanical watches are “last century” because as soon as quartz watches came along, they were obsolete.

If you are not willing to criticize a company for acting in their own selfish interest, and acting at the expense of the customers interests when they don’t have to, that’s up to you. I am, and I’m willing to admit that sometimes they act in a way that is disrespectful to their customers, and even their own heritage.

I’m quite sure that if these companies were willing to listen to what vintage watch owners wanted when they send the watches for servicing, the companies would get a lot more business than they do now, and could easily charge a good premium for that service. So your claim that this is a good business decision doesn’t really hold.

By the way, you are dead wrong about all watch companies acting the same. Mid-tier brands like Rolex and Omega don’t care about their heritage any more than what they can exploit in order to sell new watches. Companies the are true high end makers are far more respectful of their own heritage and the customer. They certainly do repair parts instead of replacing them.

johnireland

Patek, and maybe Rolex, now have special "vintage" repairs and they are much pricier than a normal service.

Dan S

Maybe the opposite. A typical RSC won't service older watches. They will just say they don't have the parts and send them back to you. The specific cutoff appears to depend on the specific RSC and their parts availability. Currently, 1970s watches are a bit hit or miss. Some will be serviced by some RSCs, but others not.

An independent watchmaker (and your acquaintance may fall into this category, even though he works at an AD) can service whatever he wants. But he may or may not have a Rolex parts account, which have become very difficult to maintain. There is an additional complication, which is that Rolex reserves certain parts (including almost all parts for certain references) for their factory service centers, and won't provide them to independent watchmakers with parts accounts.