[Rolex tom]

Originally Posted by Ashton_Horologist

Well, my call to action seems to be unanswered still so I will put forth my findings.

I’ll preface this by saying I’m a watchmaker with over a decade of professional experience and am trained on all Rolex calibers, except the sky dweller.

When a watch is ready for service at an RSC it is un-cased, with dial and hands removed and sent for pre-cleaning. This process involves the complete watch being run through a watch cleaning machine, usually one with ultrasonic and vibration cleaning.

The watch is then delivered to the watchmaker who dismantles, inspects, makes adjustments, changes worn components and then cleans and assembles.

I have never, in my time, received a watch with looses screws falling out of movement, in fact, I don’t even remember them being some what loose.

The watch is then sent to another ultrasonic cleaner, but dismantled this time. Usually, however, the balance bridge will stay on the mainplate. It is affixed via two screws. There is also a screw in the balance spring stud. Once again, when it came back from cleaning, all the screws have remained in tact with no noticeable change in torque.

To top it all off, I have performed my own tests of placing oil drops in small glass jars and submerging them in an ultrasonic tank for extended periods of time to see if lubrication was affected. The results? No change. The oil remained exactly as it was placed.

I would love other watchmakers to chime in with their observations, please.

Now, I’m not saying that I am right, I am happy to be proved wrong, and I’m not saying this should be done.

What I am saying is this - Just because you call someone an idiot on the internet for doing something you consider dumb, with absolutely no explanation why, doesn’t make you right.

The internet is full of mis information (let’s think about not showering with a watch, or the absurd static pressure myth), but let’s give the good folks of Rolex forums a little better. Let’s give them the reasons behind why they should or shouldn’t do things. Let’s back things up with facts before we start name calling.

Once again, if other watchmakers, collectors, hobbyists or generally interesting folk have other findings, please share and let’s answer this one once and for all.

Well I’m also a watchmaker and I completely disagree with you and I would advise that you don’t submerge a you watch in an ultrasonic machine as a matter of common practice.
It’s good practice to observe (in my opinion) as Not all movements and cases are the same and once you start doing it with one watch you are tempted to do it with other watches. The bracelet I wouldn’t worry to much about (Unless you have one of those Dior ones with glued stones, In fact I wouldn’t with any set watch head or bracelet). The screws on Bracelets and case backs are much higher torques. And I have found through practice that it does loosen screws. So I’m more than happy to stand by what I said.

I know it’s not Rolex but your standard 7750 had dial side screws that have a torque of 1.5 N-cm THATS A TINY AMOUNT enough for normal use not for prologued ultrasonic treatment. There’s a reason an ultrasonic is used to remove material. It loosens things.


So before you continue to call us all armchair experts it’s worth remembering that there are others on this forum.