You’ll have heard this about vintage watches before: tread carefully when you have these pieces serviced and who you allow to work on them. With Rolex, in particular, you’ll be aware of the dangers of having the factory service their vintage watches and the horror stories of these coveted watches losing the elements that make them so valuable in the process. Rolex’s own service centres are not like Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet. They do not have a heritage department to painstakingly restore and re-fabricate vintage parts in order to keep everything period correct. Instead, their objective is to make their watches as robust and high-performing as possible. So while many consumers appreciate faded bezels and patinated dials that have lost their lume, Rolex does not. They will, in fact, replace these components with modern alternatives and, in terms of polishing, will likely refinish even if you demand they leave the case and bracelet untouched. But a less acknowledged and even harsher reality to servicing vintage Rolex has been raised by watchmaker Jordan P. Ficklin via a post here on ProfessionalWatches.com: there are only a finite number of period correct parts left and, as the supply dwindles, they will only…
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