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Old 24 January 2019, 10:01 PM   #13
andy66db
"TRF" Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: London, England
Posts: 81
So I actually ended up taking my 1680 to the London RSC. My brand new Tudor GMT had the date problem, so I figured while I was there anyway, I'd see how much they'd charge me to fix my crown/stem issue.

I was immediately told it needed a full service and they'll send an estimate through in the next couple of days. I was willing to pay a small premium for Rolex service papers. But then I got the estimate.

£3280.

Apparently it needs a new mid-case and caseback to guarantee water resistance. Now I'm not a vintage expert, but when you have a 40 year old watch with a service dial, hands, bezel, crystal, crown, mid-case and caseback, it's not really a vintage watch any more.

They told me I could refuse the new case, but they wouldn't be able to make the watch water-resistant due to some corrosion inside the case and caseback and therefore it would come back without a full warranty.

So essentially I'd be paying the best part of £800 for a watch service without full warranty.

Oh well. I tried. Off to the independent (as originally planned) it goes.

One question though — if there's no damage to the movement, could the corrosion be historic? In which case, bearing in mind I've had the watch pressure tested in recent years and it's passed, are the guys at the RSC being overzealous?

I suppose this is something that can we answered by my watchmaker, but I was hoping to get the opinion of some experts :-)
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