Imagine this..
It is around 1999 and a parts dealer meets an old watchmaker in Florida. The dealer is offered a bulk of parts including some odd looking all blue inserts. They could have been described as service parts from a RSC, as custom made aftermarket inserts or just that no one knew. The dealer buys them as they look genuine from the font and basically cost nothing.
Once back the dealer shows these inserts to his friends and they agree that they kind of look genuine. Still no one ever saw all blue inserts so they aren’t really sellable. The dealer sells/gives away some to his friends and they all like their new cheap, fun insert. Time goes and one of his friends has a lose UAE dial and an odd looking all red gmt hand. The friends joke around and says it will look cool put-together. And indeed it does. The friend then comes up with the idea that they should see what Rolex says about his all red hand UAE dialed blueberry GMT. He goes to the New York RSC and submits the watch for insurance evaluation. The RSC gives him a receipt of what has been submitted and eventually also gives him a letter back describing an UAE 1675 with an all blue insert. What started with some odd parts is now suddenly ’approved by RSC’. The friend proudly posts his new watch on the collector forum together with the service paper. Long, long discussions start and people are intrigued. No one ever saw that before. Some are sceptic and some are amazed.
After a while the dealer thinks he might be able to sell these mythical all blue inserts. After all Rolex did respond when it was submitted and people doesn’t really conpletely discard these as fakes. He sells a few to other people he knows and these eventually spread out. Probably mostly as a fun thing. One day one of these friends wants to sell the all blue insert and suddenly it isn’t just for 50usd. It is for 1000usd and he actually sells it as an ultra rare part. The dealer realizes he just won the jackpot if these inserts really are rare and expensive. He still has a ton of inserts left. Over the years he sells them for 1k, 2k, 4k and suddenly they are costing more than a 1675 itself. The inserts eventually trade on watches for huge premiums. Good times!
One day people really start to question what started as a 10 dollar fun thing that quickly became a big dollar business. The dealer who still don’t know if they are real or not need to stick by his story. Not like he can reimburse 30/40/50 10k-inserts that he have sold over the years. Not even like he made that kind of money as he sold some cheap and some expensive. Market value is what people will expect back. So that means that the inserts
have to be real.
Not saying this happened. Just speculating.
Personally I have no idea and I can’t say I care. I never had one and I don’t plan to ever buy one.