Friday, January 20, 2017

The challenges of Vintage Rolex watch collecting

The challenges of Vintage Rolex watch collecting

Recently, there are much debates with regards to dials in the various forums. Take for example the Ox Blood 1803 dial and it has invited many comments with half of the collectors saying its genuine and half saying its fake or reconditioned dial. This is the result of escalating prices for special models.

When I first started collecting watches many years ago, prices were not high and dial reconditioning technology is not so advance making it easier for hobbyist to know. Now, with the advancement of technology in printing, one has to be careful. Bearing in mind that when I first collected Rolex sports watches in the 1980-90s, these are watches costing between US$900-1000 each for all models. Moreover, Rolex has no standization in terms of crown logo designon dial as a result of outsourcing of dials, bezels etc. As a result variations existed. We have to remember that during the 1970-90s period was a depression period for the Swiss watch industry as a result of the advancement of the Japanese quartz. Moreover, many Rolex spareparts produced during these period were interchangeable.

Only in modern days, the colllector started to differntiate the mark 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7 and started to split hairs in the collection. As a result of the forum, many arguments started. In the end, who is to say its genuine of fake or reconditioned? This issue is especially important when one decides to sell the watch after many years. The sellers and forum contributors may be gone and new collectors coming into markets. As such, to try to avoid such happending, I try to send as many watches to Rolex center for service and for record as possible as they are the ultimate brand owner even though the costs are very high. Moreover, i can ensure that the parts are all geninue if needed to change. Rolex center, they will first verify the watch, serial nos and make before providing service, making it a form of authentication.

I have been very discipline and I ahve not added any new collection so far... Enjoy 


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