Rolex Oyster Problem

keith

Would you take the offer ??

Background:
- It is my first Rolex (Oyster) bought in 1987 from an authorized Rolex dealer in HK;
- I kept the invoice, certificate, warranty card with serial number, manual and original packing;
- I have been doing service by Hong Kong Rolex every 10 years after the purchase;
- I have never worn the watch for swimming in lake water and in the sea;
- While this Rolex Oyster means a lot to me, I have been taking very good care of the watch since the first day after the purchase;
- After the regular service in April, I was very surprised to hear that my Oyster could not meet the Rolex standard of 100m water resistance due to corrosion/oxidation of some components; I was highly recommended to get rid of water from my Oyster and shall be very careful even when I wash my hands while I am wearing my Oyster;
- I wrote to Rolex Headquarter in Switzerland to show my disappointment in the quality of my Rolex Oyster;
- For my case, Hong Kong Rolex has given a very special offer to replace the case, the bezel and the back free of charge in order to maintain the standard of 100m water resistance;
- By replacing the case, bezel and the back, the serial number on the case, on the warranty card and on the invoice will be different;
- By replacing those component, my original Rolex Oyster will be almost new except the movement and the dial.  It will not be my original Rolex Oyster that I purchased in 1987.

To be honest, I can't believe corrosion and oxidation happens in Rolex Oyster.

If you were me, will you take the offer ?

Thanks in advance for your sharing.

bubu

That reminds me such cross-road hesitation when I had to let go my coffee-stained M8, an important present from my wife, for a factory offer to replace with a M9.

I would accept the offer because it fixes the watch's problem and prevents it from getting worse.

Think about this, the movement is the soul of your watch. The originality is still with you.

keith

Thanks bubu ching. It is really a difficult decision to make.

keith

After a meeting for an hour with the Head of Hong Kong Rolex Service Centre, I took his offer to replace the components in order to meet the water resistance standard of 100m.  Hong Kong Rolex will give me a certificate to confirm that the job is done by Hong Kong Rolex.  The change of the middle part case causing the changing of the serial number which will be different in the birth certificate of my Rolex Oyster.

I disagreed with him that the problem of corrosion or oxidation caused by the age of my Oyster of 27 years.  I emphasized that people at least me will not consider Rolex Oyster if his statement is true.  Oyster is one of the most famous and populer model of Rolex.  I showed him and asked him to test my Air King which is 45 years old.  It passed the test for 100m.  The Swiss is embarrassed.

If you are the user of Rolex Oyster and you do regular checkup and service at Hong Kong Rolex, do you agree and accept corrosion and oxidation in your middle part case due to the age ?

bytfung

My 15 year old explorer II is due for a service.

Many posts on a major discussion forum mentioned that the craftmanship of HK RSC is bad and some watches will have the case scratched during service. I am a bit hestitated.

keith

bytfung 發表於 2014-5-12 00:31
My 15 year old explorer II is due for a service.

Many posts on a major discussion forum mentioned t ...

Thanks bytfung ching for your advice.  It is the reason I wrote to Rolex Headquarter.

Frankly, I have hestitation to do the service in HKRSC too but I don't have choices.  Do you have any recommendation for doing overhaul service of Rolex watch in Hong Kong?

Pandachief

We cannot send it back to Swiss for the fix??

I feel sad for you to hear that..

keith

Pandachief 發表於 2014-5-12 11:38
We cannot send it back to Swiss for the fix??

I feel sad for you to hear that..

Thanks Panda.

While I have been doing regular service with Hong Kong Rolex, Rolex has offered me free of charge to replace the components including the middle part case, bezel and glass etc in order to meet Rolex standard of 100m water resistence.  The whole service is now doing in Hong Kong Rolex Service Centre.

Pandachief

keith 發表於 2014-5-12 12:39
Thanks Panda.

While I have been doing regular service with Hong Kong Rolex, Rolex has offered me  ...

So you can keep the old replaced parts too? Then it will feel better...

If you have no plan to use it underwater... will it still remain working? Or it will eventually stop working due to the problem?

I persoanlly don't really care if it can still go down to 100M or not... as long as it still work.  May be only change to the new parts when it broke down completely?

keith

Panda,

In my past experience, Rolex will keep all the old and defective parts.  I will lose some major original components.

I don't use my watch for swimming either.  But the thing is Rolex asked me not to wear my Rolex Oyster in washing the hands and durng it rains due to the oxidation/corrision on the middle part case.

After replacing the components, Hong Kong Rolex will do a real test for 100m water resistance in the laboratory of Hong Kong Rolex.

Changing the middle part case, Rolex will give me a certificate for the job done by Hong Kong Rolex for a 2-year worldwide warranty and for the change of the serial number with the Rolex Birth Certificate and the dealer's receipt of my Oyster.

Pandachief

keith 發表於 2014-5-12 13:14
Panda,

In my past experience, Rolex will keep all the old and defective parts.  I will lose some ma ...

Icic.. you left with no choice then..

Enjoy the watch! As man many others said, the core is still your watch.

keith

In the meeting, the Service Manager of Hong Kong Rolex mentioned that the case material of the old Rolex watches was 316L Stainless Steel.  Rolex is now using 904L Stainless Steel.

316L specifications:
http://www.sandmeyersteel.com/images/316-316L-317L-Spec-Sheet.pdf

904L specifications:
http://www.outokumpu.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Produktblad-904L.pdf

As far as I know, Panerai is using 316L.  At least, PAM 372 does.

bytfung

I finally took my 1996 explorer II to RSC for a service yesterday.
They promised to call and quote today.

I received a call from them today saying that they would like to test the water proof capability so the quotation will only be available 10 days later.

While I took my same age Omega Speedmaster to service, I got the quote same day.
HK$ 3700 for overhaul and the lead time is 1-2 months !

keith

bytfung 發表於 2014-5-14 18:38
I finally took my 1996 explorer II to RSC for a service yesterday.
They promised to call and quote t ...

Did they offer to do the free 100m water resistance test when you did not want to do any service ?  In my situation, they did the offer when I rejected to do the overhaul service with my Oyster.  They called and told me that there's corrosion and oxidation.  My Oyster failed the test.

It is strange that they did the same test and confirmed the "pass" of my Air King in 30 minutes while I was having a meeting with their service manager in the RSC.

After this experience of my Oyster, I may not want to bring my Rolex watches for overhaul or other services.  I doubt the quality of work in Hong Kong RSC.

bytfung

I want the overhaul because the date change needs 3 hours (3am) to complete.
And it is reasonable for a 18 year watch to have its first service.

I did not ask for a water proof test.

My guess is they want more business. (The say there is a scratch at the crown - may be caused by a bump so a good excuse to suspect a breach of water proof capability)

bytfung

I received quotation of my Year 1996 Explorer II today

RSC says that the 100m water proof test failed.
The glass needs to be replaced, while the crown worked well despite scratch and ding.

I could not figure out why and how the glass will cause failure of water proof function. (and what damage I have done to cause this)
There is no scratch and ding to the glass all along.

Anyway I agree to have it replaced knowing that the laser mark will be different from original.

They offer to replace the crown as well (with a new type crown), but I refuse because I want to keep the watch as original as possible.

It is a T25 white dial with slight yellow tint at the hour markers.

borismach

So what's the price of your quotation

bytfung

2700 overhaul
900+ glass

keith

Finally, I picked up my Rolex Oyster Datejust today.  To meet the standard of 100m water resistance, RSC replaced the part middle case and the glass.  Rolex issued an official guarantee card to certified that the part middle case was replaced by RSC with a new case number on it.  The new part middle case is in Rolex's worldwide record.