Reply With QuoteThe necessary work is required as I understand it.
So per the 3 options stated, you either do ALL the necessary work, ALL the necessary work and your choice of optional work, or decline the quote entirely.
I wonder if any of our knowledgeable members on here could give me an opinion on this please?
We took my OH's 26mm Lady date-just to a AD with a view to getting it serviced/ restored. It is a 20 year old well worn example.
I ought to have taken some pictures before we dropped it off but I didnt think about it until it was gone.
We have been sent the following assessment-
Thank you for entrusting us with your Rolex timepiece; it is our pleasure to provide the quotation outlined below, where we have itemised the quotation into necessary and optional work. Following careful examination by a Master Watchmaker, diagnostics have shown that to return your timepiece to its original functional and aesthetic specifications, the following interventions and/or components are required:
The following work is deemed necessary:
A complete service £580.00
A new sapphire crystal - existing is chipped/fractured £110.00
A new steel crown - existing is no longer tightening to the case £40.00
A new dial - existing lacquer is peeling on the edges £408.00 ( please note that the existing dial is no longer available, closest match has been estimated for, image shown above)
A new date indicator - as above £89.00
New hands - existing are moisture damaged £86.00
The following work is deemed optional:
A new bezel - existing is heavily scratched/gouged, these will not be removed when polished £1320.00
A new bracelet - existing is heavily worn and strained £950.00
For an overall total of £3583.00
Please be advised that should you decline the optional bracelet we are unable to guarantee the security of your timepiece, neither will it receive refurbishment.
Next steps
The estimated length of time to complete all work will be 14 weeks from the date of receiving your proceed notification. This date is given as a guideline only and is subject to the availability of the components detailed above and quality control. If you are happy with the quotation provided, please reply to this email with your confirmation on how you wish to proceed:
Necessary and Optional: If you would like to proceed with some, but not all optional work, please detail this as necessary within in your response
Necessary work only: Whereby you do wish to proceed without any of the optional work
Do not proceed: Whereby you do not wish to proceed with the estimate
What do you think- I think the optional (especially the white gold bezel- it didnt look heavily scratched/gouged to me) is a gouge.
The rest of it apart from the new dial (again I hadn't noticed any peeling lacquer or anything else for that matter) are fair enough IMO, so if we said go ahead and do all the necessary work less the new dial at £408, we would be looking at around £905 which we can live with. That is obviously assuming they will do it without a new dial?
Any thoughts, opinions or alternate plans would be happily received.
Cheers all.
The necessary work is required as I understand it.
So per the 3 options stated, you either do ALL the necessary work, ALL the necessary work and your choice of optional work, or decline the quote entirely.
My experience is that they call for replacement as soon as there is any mark or stretch etc. So I think you are about right in what you are thinking of doing.
And presumably those are for “swapped” parts do you don’t get to retain the original bezel, bracelet, etc.?
If it were mine I would go for everything except the replacement bezel - will then be ready for another 20 years of service
Originally Posted by chaplad
My opinion is that the “works” would cost ypu way more than the watch is really worth.
If it has sentimental value, to you or your wife, I would reject the quote and send the watch to thewatchpolisher (search on IG to see some incredible work) and get it repaired/refurbished/bezel recut/bracelet re pinned then send it to Rolex for the service/Crystal/crown…..
If it doesn’t have sentimental value, I’d sell it and put the money ypu we’re going to spend on it towards buying her something else.
Or have the watch polisher do the refurb and send it to an independent for the service/crown/crystal and don’t have the dial or handset?
I would just have the necessary works done for the £1300 and you're good for another 20 years, personally wouldn't try to cut costs on maintenance.
Bracelet work send to Seth , and he can do most of the other service stuff for a lot less .
Think this is the way that I would go also - but also send to someone to work on the bracelet to ensure it's strength.
I would send the watch to a Rolex accredited independent who will have more latitude regarding what is and isn`t essential.
Having said that, it sounds like the watch has been allowed to get into a poor state so it's no surprise that restoration will prove expensive. The only person I know of in the UK who can restore the bracelets is Seth, never dealt with him personally but his reputation is good.
Owning a Rolex comes at a cost thesedays, especially if the watch ends up in poor condition.
I'd ask for the watch back and take to an independent for a check on Time Grapher and then decide if a basic movement service was needed. Once it comes back with a replacement dial/hands it won't be the same.
Disagree, after 20 years the watch is in dire need of attention, that's a given! It sounds like the watch has led a hard life and if it hasn`t been serviced in 20 years, the movement will definitely need servicing. It's also likely to need several replacement parts. It's impossible to comment on the dial without seeing it, but I would only advocate replacement if the lacquer was unstable and flaking, same applies to the hands.
We don`t know how this watch currently looks, if the hands and dial look scruffy there's a strong case for replacing them regardless of whether the finish is stable.
This job is far better suited to an independent who will be more flexible about what has to be replaced. The OP doesn`t state his objective, if he wants the watch restoring to get it close to new condition or to do the minimum to get it into reasonable condition. Strongly recommend the OP discusses the job with whoever it goes to, playing e-mail tennis isn`t the right way to address these things.
For me a movement service with an independent WM , send the bracelet to Seth to get sorted £125 and look out for a dial and hands if they are in need of replacing ( Rolex are very very finicky about hands/dials) , in fact come to think of it Seth could sort everything at a fraction of that figure .
Thanks for all the replys-I have asked the AD to return it and I think I am going to send it to the much recommended Seth to have it sorted out.
Thanks everyone.
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