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Old 18 February 2007, 02:50 PM   #1
iflooru
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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Sending 1675 in for service to Dallas (long)

First time poster...long time Rolex fan. Just wanted to break my cherry tonight with a post about my 1675 GMT. I've owned it for 21 years, have the original box and papers. Also own a 1655 ExpII with an orange hand. The serial number on the 1675 is 148xxxx which would date it to the mid 60's but it was actually manuf in mid 70's. It does hack but no quickset. The calibre is 1575. My last service at RWSC Dallas was in 1999. I had some major work done.

Factory service $255
Crown $21
Tube $9
4 new hands $25.50
Black dial $120
There was a good amount of moisture damage on the hands and dial. The tritium was also 20+ years old and had zero glow. So that's why I had them replaced. New dial still reads T<25 but its Luminova. The watch came back MINT!

So here it is almost 8 years later and it's time to send it back. I wear the watch daily and am pretty active with it. From what I've read briefly it seems the factory service alone is up to around $400 which is what I paid for all that I had done last time in. I'm hoping I don't need anything more than just the service this time around.

I do have a question about the Luminova. Obviously the stuff doesn't last as long as the tritium. But I am finding that the Luminova on my dial has lost more than half its power. It still charges but the initial brightness and more specifically the longevity of its luminescence has greatly diminished. Can Rolex give a Luminova dial a re-charge? Or am I looking at a new dial if I really wanted the intensity back? If a new dial cost $120 8 years ago my guess would be ~$200 in 2007. New hands are cheap enough to get replaced and perhaps that would be the most economical route as they would glow new again making it easy to tell time.

Also I wonder if anyone has any input on the timing of my watch. It always runs fast 10-14 seconds a day depending (about a minute a week). Keeps perfect time off the wrist though. I informed Rolex of this when I sent it in back in 1999. But after the overhaul it still ran fast. Dallas wanted it back and they overhauled the movement again after about 3 months of me having it. There was no charge and there was no change in the timing even though it timed out correctly for them. My 1655 Explorer keeps excellent time and it has the same 1575 movement. I'm almost tempted to crack open the back of the 1675 and go at the microstellas myself in hopes of slowing the timing a bit. Seriously though what can I tell Rolex that would help them adjust this movement properly? Thanks for reading and thanks for the forum. I'll get some before and afters up after it comes back.

George
1675 GMT
1655 McQueen
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Old 18 February 2007, 08:22 PM   #2
tonelar
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This is interesting to me.. so far my Super Luminova watches are glowing loooong after my tritium ones have given up. I wonder if there's a difference between luminova and super-luminova...
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Old 18 February 2007, 09:23 PM   #3
mike
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Hi George! Welcome. Cleveland! LOL, Another Buckeye! I'm just outside Columbus.

First of congrats on two supurb pieces! The 1655 is considered one of the "grail" watches to collectors and commands a tremendous price inthe vintage community. What year is it? Would love to see a pic of it and your 1675.

Now, about your 1675, yeah service has gone up. Currently a service is running about $475 to $500 depending on what needs to be done.
That will include new gaskets, crown, crystal, tube......

I would give consideration to NOT replacing the dial. Yeah, the orginal tritium dial is gone, but what you have sounds like what some have dubbed the "transitional" luminova dial. As I'm sure you know Rolex curtailed the use of tritium circa 1998 or so. During this time Rolex used luminova dials marked as tritium (SWISS T<25). Theroies abound for this, but the best I've heard is that Rolex used up existing supplies of trit. marked dials, using luminova as a lume agent prior to marking new dials SWISS.
There's some debate if Rolex initally used Luminova or Superluminova initally.
I am of the camp that feels Rolex at first used luminova for a couple of years before switching to superluminova. Some of those dials were marked "SWISS T<25 (a dial used on various sport models from about 1998-2003), some were marked SWISS (circa 1998-2000)
There did seem to be complaints that the luminova dials did not have the "glow" the SL dials had and Rolex apparently replaced those if the customer asked.
In any event the SWISS T<25 luminova dial is a bit sought after by some collectors.
One of the things said about luminova is that unlike tritium that has a half-life affecting it's ability to "excite" the phosphors in the paint matrix, luminova, being non-radioactive is not supposed to lose it ability to "glow" or "age".

In any event a new dial will run about $225 or so from Rolex. At service I would tell Dallas how fast the watch is running, your wear habits etc... Part of service is regulation of the watch, but it's been my experience giving them an idea of how the watch is used helps.

Good luck.
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