Bringing vintage Rolex timepieces back into the fold of the official network
By Straight-Six, published on 7 March 2010
After you’ve succumbed to the temptation of a wrinkled and aged vintage timepiece, and spent many hours admiring the charming changes decades of existence have wrought, you come to a rather blunt moment when you ask yourself the following: just what kind of mechanical condition is this little chap actually in?
We mean, what the hell do most of us know about the insides of a quality watch, and what makes the tick turn into a tock? The answer for the majority of us is: close to nil. Perhaps you feel a resistance when you turn your crown, or notice that your expensive purchase is actually losing 15 minutes a day. Or, like us, you hear a rattle from within your 1980 Rolex Sea-Dweller that doesn’t sound healthy. At all.
So, you then face a stark choice: you can either attempt to ask an authorized dealer to take the piece in for a service, while specifying exactly what you want changed and what needs to be left well alone (after all, the value of a vintage piece are the visible aged parts like the dial, hands, bezel and bezel insert), or you can go the independent specialist route.
After our purchase of three vintage pieces, we reached a moment of decision on the above, fueled by some issues with two of our pieces and the need to bring them back into the fold to ensure all was as it should be.
There’s nothing like returning your watches to the official network for some reassurance and quality servicing. If they’ll have you that is. For things aren’t as straightforward as just walking into a dealer and getting your 30 year-old plus pieces taken care of…
Having already established a wonderful relationship with Belgium’s largest Rolex authorized dealer – Yvan Friedman – we brought our rattling Sea-Dweller and loose bracelet pin-1530 to him with a request to give them a full service without touching anything visible. As accommodating and charming as ever, he nonetheless pointed out the Rolex would check the serial numbers first and ascertain when the last time they were serviced within the official network. If this was beyond the 20 year, or so, mark, then we could expect them to be returned to us untouched given priority was given to owners who regularly maintained their timepieces in the network.
Part of us understood this, what with limited parts and the like. But another thought was why wouldn’t Rolex accept any piece, no matter how old, for servicing? After all, it’s their brand and reputation on the line here, and a link to the customer comes no more direct, after the point of sale, than the servicing of a timepiece.
There’s a great debate over this issue of Rolex’s general refusal to service pieces over a certain age online, but Mr. Friedman nevertheless took them both in and we are now expectantly awaiting the news from within the belly of the Rolex beast.
You’ll be the first to know whether they’ll have us and our two wizened pieces back, or not…
Bringing vintage Rolex timepieces back into the fold of the official network
After you’ve succumbed to the temptation of a wrinkled and aged vintage timepiece, and spent many hours admiring the charming changes decades of existence have wrought, you come to a rather blunt moment when you ask yourself the following: just what kind of mechanical condition is this little chap actually in? We mean, what the [...]
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The Prodigal Fool
7 March 2010
Great post Staight-Six.
And something of a soap opera….tune in next week to find out whether Straight-Six survives the scrutiny and whims of Rolex.
My take on all this? Rolex should welcome any watch back with open arms, treat the owner like a king and restore it according to the owner’s exact wishes. Just like, eh, every self-respecting luxury watch brand – think Patek, JLC, IWC etc.