[javadog]

OK, I have to push back on that.

When you send a watch to the Rolex service center, they disassemble it and prepare a list of recommended service items. You have to agree to those items before they will do anything to the watch. You can choose not to do certain things and you can ask for other things to be done that are not listed. NOTHING happens until there's an agreement between the two of you.

When you take a watch into the service center, they will disassemble it while you wait in their very plush waiting room and then you will get to have the suggested service work discussed by the guy that just took it apart and will be working on it. Again, you can address any concerns you might have. Nothing happens until you are happy AND SIGN THE WORK ORDER specifically listing everything that will be done to the watch.

One vintage Rolex I owned, a rare 5512 Submariner that I purchased from James Dowling years ago in the UK, was serviced in Dallas and came back looking like the beautiful example it was. Not a single "modern" replacement part was visible because the watch was nice enough to not need a new dial, or hands, or bezel, or what have you.

I also have to disagree with some more common nonsense from the watch collecting world.

Patina.

You buy a brand new Rolex (or Patek, or any of the other premium watches) and you get a perfect watch. Flawlessly crafted, a work of art. Personally, I always took very good care of my watches, as I wanted them to stay looking that way indefinitely. Not everybody is that careful and some are downright careless, especially the women. Years down the road, a watch can look less than brand new and Rolex is pretty damn good at reversing that during a service. This idea that a watch is worth more when it carries the many scars of careless use is, to my mind, equal to some of the bull**** that comes out of the moths of some art dealers.

Yes, you can polish a case or bracelet POORLY (looking at you, Joe Independent) but that's not what Rolex does. I think it's much ado about nothing with respect to Rolex, to bolster the value of the used dealers' less than stellar inventory.

My two cents, but it is one of the things, along with the scenario that aschen describes so well above, that convinced me to exit the hobby that I'd been in since around 1970.