I’ve always wanted to get a late 80s sub 5513. One with service paper would pop up on eBay every now and then. I feel like that anyone with some MS Word skills can easily forge a service receipt. How do you know if it’s legit? Or should I just stay away from those?

 

You might look for the plastic warranty card instead of/in addition to service papers. It's a little harder to fake. Like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1989-Rolex...452070?hash=item5b5795b1a6:g:pSsAAOSwRvhc~WGFPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

Thanks!
I saw that one too.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ro...888289?hash=item2f32366421:g:wesAAOSwTy1dAYcjPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
This one also has the plastic card.
Seems like service fee is day and night between the two.

 

Yeah, looks like the service price goes up more than $100/year.

 

Do they all look legit? One only has requester’s info on top. The other one has billing address on top.

 

I think they're good. As noted, they both have the plastic warranty card in addition to the paper copy.

That said, the watch at auction (as opposed the BIN/Offer watch) is vastly more desirable. (a) It has a tritium dial, and (b) it has actual crown guards. The guards on the BIN watch have been polished down to nubs. It's a little surprising to me that Rolex serviced that watch without replacing the case, but I don't know what their policy is on that.

 

I see. There’s no pictures of the lugs on the BIN one. But seems like the BIN seller may be the original owner. The one being auctioned says tritium on the dial but probably is luminova dial too since it was serviced in 2013.

 

I was referring to the crown guards, not the lugs. And if the bottom of the dial says "SWISS -- T < 25" it's tritium, not luminova. There's one mega-rare exception to that in Rolex-land, but this isn't it.

crown guards, "T < 25"


nubs, "SWISS"

 

Thank!
The one being auctioned has replaced hands according to the service receipt. Does that mean the indices are still tritium?

 

Yes, the "SWISS -- T < 25" on the dial tells you the dial indices are tritium. Hands are almost certainly luminova in this case from a 2013 service.

 

In the pictures they match nicely. I guess tritium plots and luminova hands will age differently. Is this price a little too high for a service hands? So case look doesn’t over polished?

 

Taking this to PM.