How often does someone post the above statement and yes it is very true, buyer beware, do your due diligence, buy the seller etc all come into play plus tons of research then show your findings to a few people that you trust and hopefully you should be able to make an informed decision.
Last night whilst browsing, I spotted this 5513 for sale:
https://www.ukspecialistwatches.co.u...-vintage-1976/
The more I looked at it the odder it became. Let's start at the beginning. When you first look at the images the watch certainly has the wow factor, everything matches and it looks lovely and clean. Then I read the title of the listing 'Submariner 5513 - SCOC dial'. Hang on a moment the 5513 never had a SCOC dial so what's going on here. The listing honestly states that the watch has a 5512 dial, quite why I don't know. The hands match and the bezel insert is a service replacement.
The caseback is a 5512 caseback, but quite often 5512 and 5513 casebacks got put on the wrong model, which is something collectors don't seem to get upset about. So then I'm thinking is this a 5513 or a 5512. Looking at the recent service card from Rolex pictured it is described as a 5513, so happy to take their word for it - if anyone should know it will be them. The watch is described as 1976 and Rolex have kindly put the full serial number on the service card, but checking the records cases bearing serial numbers from 4.4m to 5.0m were retained by Rolex in 1976 and have been drip fed out as service replacement cases and this one being 4.7m is slap bang in the middle of that run.
Therefore the true age of the Watch is not known as the case has been replaced with a later service case, the original dial has been replaced with a dial that has no right to be in a 5513 as the watch would never have been presented for SCOC accreditation. Likely the hands are replacements as they match the dial perfectly and the insert is also a replacement.
So we start off with a watch that looks stunning in the images, but beyond the actual movement it appears to be just a collection of assembled parts.
Buyer beware indeed.
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