Reply With QuoteNo, but it sounds great.Originally Posted by Foxy100
I had dinner with a friend a short time ago and he told me you can buy new Rolexes in Japan that have been stripped and rebuilt to a higher standard, for which you pay a premium of around 10%. He said these brand new Rolexes are made to run and put back together to Japanese rather than Swiss standards and if on disassembly the watch received from Switzerland isn't good enough it's sent back.
Anyone know anything about this?
"A man of little significance"
No, but it sounds great.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Calling kuchars22 to Watch Talk. A Rolex thread needs your valuable input.
It's a fantastic rumour but I can't see it myself; sounds a bit like Grand Seiko propaganda. Surely it would be akin to them [the Japanese] restitching Louis Vuitton bags.
Happy to watch this unfold though
Perhaps we could have a sweepstake of some sort? I'll take 23 pages by 8pm.
Easy way to con people out of a lot of money. Complete tosh.
If spread betting were allowed on here i'm afraid I would have to sell that one.
It sounds extraordinarily unlikely to me....but then what do I know? Its not as though we are dealing with European cars of the 60s & 70s which were badly built, and could maybe have done with dismantling and reassembly to a higher standard! Manufacturing standards are so much higher in general these days, and we are talking Rolex here, who I assume put things together pretty well. What would be the gain?? 0.2s less time gain or loss per week??
😂🤭 brilliant
Sounds about right!
I find it hard to believe, but nothing would surprise me with the Japanese. I used to work for a luxury automobile maker. We received a complaint from the Japanese dealer because of a paint defect. On receipt of a picture, we were struggling to understand the location of the defect on the vehicle. After some head-scratching we realized that the defect was actually smaller than the metal-flake used in the paint to make it sparkle.
Having said that, they hadn't stripped the vehicle down.
Link?
https://imgur.com/Jiey3AF
"A man of little significance"
Is that why none of the Rolex ADs have any stock? It’s all been bought up and is getting stripped and rebuilt in Japan?
10% premium? Still cheaper than Watchfinder.
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It's about time someone pointed out the terrible quality of rolex! For years they have produced shoddy goods!
P.s. WTB - ceramic daytona(white or black) and also batman gmt.willing to pay retail for new in box.
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That would be a massive insult to Rolex by implying that their workmanship is sub standard.
Rolex would simply remove themselves from any dealership who insult them in this way, in particular if watches were sent back because they did not meet certain standards. I cannot for a moment believe this to be true.
Every now and then there is some cobblers total and utter spouted by some-one here, not you Foxy100 but your friend, ask him to provide the source.
What company would agree to this? It is tantamount to saying that you make inferiour crap. Rolex clearly do not so it is clearly cobblers.
What drinks were served at (and just before) this dinner?
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Anything's possible.
I can see a tiny market for people stripping down watches and rebuilding them to finer tolerances than Rolex use.
In the motoring world it's called 'blueprinting'.
I'd be surprised, though, if it came with a premium of only 10%...
M
Well I believe it.
The Rolex I bought new went back to Rolex twice in the first couple of years to have issues sorted. I mean it's not like Tudor sending out GMTs with faulty dates but you get my point.
"A man of little significance"
No Foxy i do not. Sorry. You had a bad watch that you had to send back.
My DJ went back three times in the first year, never buy another Rolex - fact.
Dealerships do no exist in Japan and also remember prices are significantly higher as well - very much at Grey Dealer pricing (though in yen they have hardly changed for years and years).
So basically you can sell a Rolex for whatever you want in Japan. Personally I can believe this story. Not a huge job to totally strip down and rebuild and regulate to a better standard I'd think?
sorry Crazy but should that read .....not?
No authorised Rolex dealers in Japan???? I am pretty certain there are even without checking on Rolex website. The OP suggests if it's sub standard, it gets sent back to Rolex. There is no way Rolex would have that.
Rolex seem to think they have dealerships in Japan...unless some-one has hacked their website and added a load.
Of course they have dealers - but the idea of an AD as a concept which we have is entirely different. Basically a dealer can do whatever they like in Japan.
Yet you were very clear when you stated dealerships do not exist in Japan. What were we to think.
It still sounds like cobblers the concept of them re-building Rolex watches to sell as ......wait for it......Rolex watches! I vote this is horse shit!
In the way we know ADs and grey dealers, it is significantly different in Japan and a lot of places in Asia. Hence why I can totally believe this story.
Interesting thread, thing is the Japanese do go to very great lengths for accuracy and quality so I can see them doing something like this, after all the Grand Seiko's are supposedly way above COSC standards and Japanese optics are among the best in the world.
Dont think there is a Comex Seiko yet though, or is there??
Quite a good write up here on watch testing but the video hurts your eyes!
Please explain how an AD is a "concept", and what is the concept?
Quite an amusing thread in many ways.
In short it's to do with pricing - an 'AD' as we know it in Europe cannot charge you more than what Rolex state as list price. Official Rolex dealers in certain parts of the world can very much sell a watch for whatever they see fit.
sounds like a load of tosh?
Sooo, so far we have one story from the dinner table and people here are believing it could be true!
Perhaps the moon is made out of cheese.
Wensleydale I believe...
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
But watch tolerances aren’t going to be like auto tolerances, especially from the Crown.
Also - I thought blueprinting aims to reduce the partially self-negating forces of differing tolerances from different cylinders; if that’s correct it can’t really be as applicable to a watch...
I didn't say it happened, just it might
I don't know what percentage tolerances watches are made to, but I bet it's not massively different to engines, although the absolutes will be bigger on most engines - There's always scope for tightening the tolerances.
Blueprinting is just the act of making something as close to the specification as possible, reducing the margins for error to (potentially) zero, so could be applied to watches and given the obsession with some over watches that loose a second a day or week or month, I can see there (again, potentially) being a market for it!
I wouldn't imagine (as seems to be being suggested) that it would be common practice for most dealers and, as I said, I can't imagine it costing as little as 10% more!
M
Last edited by snowman; 15th November 2018 at 20:39.
It's definitely true. This is an absolute fact. Everybody knows Rolex are all style and no substance and that they need bringing up to GS standards by the Japanese.
Whether it's actually true or not I don't care,but there do seem to be some people getting really worked up about this for no particular reason.
Check the Grand Seiko website for details on guaranteed cased accuracy for mechanicals. Not very exciting.
Well. I did ask for a link. But has this one been stripped down and rebuilt in Japan to a higher standard?
I knew they fit myota quartz for improved accuracy
0_0 ciao
But some of Rolex work is "sub" standard. Right, I'm off to bed.
Unfortunately it's not like an engine.I didn't say it happened, just it might
I don't know what percentage tolerances watches are made to, but I bet it's not massively different to engines, although the absolutes will be bigger on most engines - There's always scope for tightening the tolerances.
Blueprinting is just the act of making something as close to the specification as possible, reducing the margins for error to (potentially) zero, so could be applied to watches and given the obsession with some over watches that loose a second a day or week or month, I can see there (again, potentially) being a market for it!
I wouldn't imagine (as seems to be being suggested) that it would be common practice for most dealers and, as I said, I can't imagine it costing as little as 10% more!
M
Nobody outside Rolex are going to tell you what the exact factory specifications for each internal part is going to be, and they are very unlikely to be supplying spares for the purpose of fine tuning - so the idea of it seems utter bollocks. Since when is +2/-2 going to be bettered by most regulation over a longer term in any case. It's way more stringent than the current Grand Seiko or METAS standard as it is.
It's just a matter of time...
If only my DJ had been that accurate !!
Rolex and Patek tolerances are pretty much the industry standard with them being now -2 +2 or thereabouts. Grand Seiko have much "wilder" tolerances than that. I dun see how anyone, let alone the Japanese can make them even more strict. What a load of BS.
PS I live in Tokyo.
+2/-2 is really impressive for a tolerance.
PS: is that meters, micrometers, lightyears or percent?
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
My Rolex lost at least a minute every week which is why it needed a new crown after two years, had I kept it in a safe at least it would have been accurate twice a day...
Here, I did the research for you, "Seconds" Per day:
http://www.fhs.swiss/eng/2016_04_28_01_Rolex.html
http://www.fhs.swiss/eng/2009-04-24_696.html
- - - Updated - - -
Thats a faulty watch, which can happen to any brand.
Piece of crap Rolex and the Swiss. Gonna sell all my Rolexes and buy a quartz seiko (grand), good thinking
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