What is going on with 32xx Rolex movements

[881]

Originally Posted by East of Eden

Like the forum member with problems with 6 of his 8 32xx watches?

Ho hum same boring group talking amongst themselves but at others

[Bro Watch]

Excuse me, but may I politely inquire if you happen to be near any strong magnets? There's a slight possibility that your watch might have become magnetized. As an admirer of the Explorer, I don't recall encountering any issues with its timing.

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[East of Eden]

Originally Posted by Bro Watch

Excuse me, but may I politely inquire if you happen to be near any strong magnets? There's a slight possibility that your watch might have become magnetized. As an admirer of the Explorer, I don't recall encountering any issues with its timing.

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Why would magnets only impact 32xx movements?

[Driver8]

Originally Posted by Bro Watch

Excuse me, but may I politely inquire if you happen to be near any strong magnets? There's a slight possibility that your watch might have become magnetized. As an admirer of the Explorer, I don't recall encountering any issues with its timing.[/IMG]

Unlikely, as firstly the 32xx is highly anti-magnetic due to the materials used in the Chronergy escapement, and secondly when a watch is magnetised it usually speeds up dramatically, not slows down, due to the effective "shortening" of the hairspring.

I say "usually" above, as a watch can slow down as a result of magnetism if parts other than the hairspring is magnetised but it's much more unusual (and I assume Rolex has that covered in terms of anti-magnetism too).

[CedCraig]

Reasons why I think the 32xx movement issue is undercounted and not common knowledge outside of enthusiast circles (in no particular order):

-Few people own timegraphers so most in the “my 32xx watch runs great” crowd don’t know what their amplitude is. WatchTracker app screen shots showing good accuracy don’t mean the movement doesn’t have the low amplitude virus.

-Grey market dealers and flippers want to keep the issue quiet so people don’t start hesitating about buying watches with 32xx movements. Regular owners who frequently sell their watches are also in this category.

-Many watches are safe queens, especially newer models.

-Many newer watches are, um, new, and haven’t developed the problem. “I just got my BLRO and it’s run great in the first month!”

-Many people have collections and rotate their watches so frequently that -10spd or more just isn’t noticed.

-For the people who wear their watch every day, they will not notice the accuracy drop off when dipping into the power reserve, for example after 24 hours or 48 hours of non-use.

-Rolex watches are status bracelets now so who cares about good timekeeping anyway?

-A few people here have had multiple 32xx watches break bad and to get any reasonable probabilities for this to happen you have to incorporate a high failure rate into the calculations. I can’t remember the exact details, but I recall the failure rate was north of 30% for those examples (2 of 3, 3 of 6 and 5 of 8 going bad, or something like that).

-Major watch blogs and YouTubers are too afraid to open this can of worms for fear of being blacklisted by the most powerful brand in the watch industry. Kudos to Worn&Wound for asking what’s going on, but even they have dropped their inquiries.

-Fanboys who paid a lot of money for a Rolex can’t bear to think their precious is anything but perfect and want to sweep the issue under the rug.

-The Rolex ecosystem of ADs, SAs, RSC staff have a vested interest in not admitting anything is wrong. This is the Rolex way. The fact that a few insiders have admitted to problems suggests to me quite a widespread issue.

My October 2022 Air-King is running close to spec. In year four of the warranty I’ll get a timegrapher to check the amplitudes and if it’s bad, I’ll get it repaired then sell it and get a JLC Polaris or something similar. In the meantime I’ll enjoy the watch but will keep up on this issue.

[sgt10p]

Originally Posted by CedCraig

.

My October 2022 Air-King is running close to spec. In year four of the warranty I’ll get a timegrapher to check the amplitudes and if it’s bad, I’ll get it repaired then sell it and get a JLC Polaris or something similar. In the meantime I’ll enjoy the watch but will keep up on this issue.

So if your Air King is running fine you don't have an issue with the 32xx series do you?

[Driver8]

Originally Posted by sgt10p

So if your Air King is running fine you don't have an issue with the 32xx series do you?

At this point in time, that appears to be the case. So that's great news.

Whether it stays like that in future is anyone's guess. Hopefully it will, but who knows.

[sgt10p]

Originally Posted by Driver8

At this point in time, that appears to be the case. So that's great news.

Whether it stays like that in future is anyone's guess. Hopefully it will, but who knows.

I'm in the same boat, my LV is running fine at -1 sec per day long may it continue. But to be honest, any time after 5 years is fine and I'll just send it in for service. I don't expect 10 years, that's 2,495,232,000 movements of the pallet fork (PADI)

[CedCraig]

Originally Posted by sgt10p

So if your Air King is running fine you don't have an issue with the 32xx series do you?

I don’t know if my Air King is fine. Since I don’t have a timegrapher I don’t know what my amplitudes are. It’s running close to the -2/+2 spec now, but watches with the low amplitude virus do keep good time for a while, then begin running -30spd, -40spd or more. That’s why I’m just keeping an eye on the timekeeping for now and will get a timegrapher in year 4 of the warranty period, unless the timekeeping really degrades.

I do have an issue with the 32xx series because a company like Rolex shouldn’t have these problems. And if problems like these arise, an upstanding company should be clear about what the problem is, what the actual real fix is, and should extend the warranty to the 10 year maintenance interval for movements that develop the problems in years 5-10. I realize none of those things will ever happen, so it’s up to me to monitor the health of the movement and then dump the lemon if problems arise. I’d never, ever buy a used 32xx watch, that’s for sure.

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by CedCraig

-A few people here have had multiple 32xx watches break bad and to get any reasonable probabilities for this to happen you have to incorporate a high failure rate into the calculations. I can’t remember the exact details, but I recall the failure rate was north of 30% for those examples (2 of 3, 3 of 6 and 5 of 8 going bad, or something like that).

https://www.rolexforums.com/showpost...postcount=3860

[Easy E]

Originally Posted by saxo3

https://www.rolexforums.com/showpost...postcount=3860

Math is a brutal thing

[alphadweller]

Originally Posted by CedCraig

Reasons why I think the 32xx movement issue is undercounted and not common knowledge outside of enthusiast circles (in no particular order):
(...)

Brilliant summary of why it's a non-issue for most owners .

[Calatrava r]

[QUOTE=CedCraig;13249507]Reasons why I think the 32xx movement issue is undercounted and not common knowledge outside of enthusiast circles (in no particular order):

-

-Grey market dealers and flippers want to keep the issue quiet so people don’t start hesitating about buying watches with 32xx movements. Regular owners who frequently sell their watches are also in this category.

Flippers are just ordinary folks who were able to buy a Rolex at retail and then for whatever reason decided to sell their watch to a used watch dealer. This whole movement issue is a non-event to them. They are not trying to keep quiet about anything, I believe, except hoping their AD doesn't find out they sold their watch and being blacklisted from that store.

[Scholar]

I saw a post from last year that finally gives me some clarity on why so many people here get angry about this discussion. I don't agree, obviously, but it illustrates a motivation/thought process that was indecipherable to me before.

The person said something like, "I'm sick of people saying that the watches I own are bad," or something like that.

In other words, some people seem to take criticism of the movement as a personal insult to them as owners, when to the rest of us, the only persons who are the target of that criticism are the Rolex execs/designers who put it through.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by Scholar

I saw a post from last year that finally gives me some clarity on why so many people here get angry about this discussion. I don't agree, obviously, but it illustrates a motivation/thought process that was indecipherable to me before.

The person said something like, "I'm sick of people saying that the watches I own are bad," or something like that.

In other words, some people seem to take criticism of the movement as a personal insult to them as owners, when to the rest of us, the only persons who are the target of that criticism are the Rolex execs/designers who put it through.

Very well said
I suppose that to an extent, the watch with it's movement and all sort of defines them somehow and there's a lot to fully factor in around that

[Booth9999]

Well my sea dweller anniversary from 17 went in just 1 month after the warranty expired. They took it in but said I might have to pay but will see if they can do it on good faith. If not they said $1600 out of pocket. It’s been a few weeks so we will see when it gets back…. Low amplitude