First post & new vintage GMT

[vcnyls]

Hi all. I've been lurking here for a while because I'm first starting to get into vintage Rolex watches. Well, my insanely awesome wife picked up on that and just surprised me with this 1979 (my birth year) Pepsi GMT (all original, never polished, just serviced) for my 35th birthday and our 5th anniversary!

Obviously, I'm psyched for the gift and for the awesome wife!

Watch shown here with dog (not wife):

[miamiman]

Nice watch, cute dog...

[V.lats97nsx]

Honestly im still waiting for one from my wife. Uggh u lucky

[Dr.Smellody]

Super. Congratulations!

[Cord]

lovely GMT, enjoy......

[Vincent65]

looks great, congrats

[PoderEsBueno]

Congrats

[nsumner]

Wow! Great wife! Congrats and welcome

[RC2]

Wow. Great watch , wife and dog (no particular order)

[SAAS]

Big congrats! Birth years are special.

[Franks07]

Welcome. Great watch! Your wife is a real keeper.
Congrats on both.

[watchcrank]

nice :-) congrats on all three, you pick the order! M

[Rolex_Collector]

Congrats! Enjoy that

[Chrispare]

Congrats
I love the way your dog is looking at you !

[ExplorerChris]

Welcome tithe forum family
Congrats thats a great looking watch
You've got an awesome wife & a very cute dog

[vcnyls]

Thanks all!

One technical question - when setting a vintage watch how many initial winds do you do? I gave it about 10 the first day (which is what I would give my newer manual watches when putting them on after not wearing for a few days) and the next morning (I took it off at night when sleeping) it had stopped. Looking online and there is a suggestion of 25-30 winds after not wearing for a while but I don't want to over wind and risk messing anything up. Suggestions?

[CrownMe]

I always wind mine 30 times to 40 times.


Welcome to the forum and your new addiction.

[swish77]

Originally Posted by vcnyls

Thanks all!

One technical question - when setting a vintage watch how many initial winds do you do? I gave it about 10 the first day (which is what I would give my newer manual watches when putting them on after not wearing for a few days) and the next morning (I took it off at night when sleeping) it had stopped. Looking online and there is a suggestion of 25-30 winds after not wearing for a while but I don't want to over wind and risk messing anything up. Suggestions?

Yes, I wind my vintage pieces exactly 40 times (OCD) after not wearing them for a while, but I don't think you can over-wind them. One exception is manual-wind watches (e.g. vintage Daytonas.) You can damage those by over-winding. Congrats on watch, dog and wife!

[vcnyls]

Great. Thanks

[vcnyls]

So I wound the watch 30ish times yesterday and woke up this morning to a watch stopped and displaying a time about 4 hours after I took it off. The strange thing is that while it's on my wrist during the day it keeps perfect time. Thinking I need to bring it back to the guy she bought it from and probably have it sent back to Rolex for service but before I do I wanted to see if anyone here has any thoughts.... Going to go by Tourneau during lunch today too.

[vcnyls]

Did they make a manual movement in 1979?

[Dalton]

Nice watch! It might be in need of service. Power reserve is way too low. Go to your local watchmaker to see how bad the amplitude is also. Is it gaining or losing time when u wear it? All rolex automatic movements are manual, with the auto section acting as a perpetual winder, when in motion.

[bearone2]

very nice, welcome

[vcnyls]

Originally Posted by Dalton

Nice watch! It might be in need of service. Power reserve is way too low. Go to your local watchmaker to see how bad the amplitude is also. Is it gaining or losing time when u wear it? All rolex automatic movements are manual, with the auto section acting as a perpetual winder, when in motion.

Thanks. According to the place my wife got it, the watch was just serviced. I'll ask about the amplitude though.

Watch seems to be keeping perfect time when I'm wearing it and I don't notice any time loss until I take it off for the night.

Good to know about the movement. I was pretty sure that all GMT's were perpetual but I thought maybe they made some that were fully manual wind...

[Frogman4me]

Congrats! Like the dog :)

[BaltimoreBrian]

Beautiful insert on that great find! Happy Bday

[cajuntiger]

The watch is great...your wife is awesome!

[vcnyls]

Update to the story: I went over to Rolex on 5th Avenue and had their service department look at the watch. They say that the watch needs service (movement is running very slowly), which is very annoying because my wife was told that it had been recently serviced. So, assuming we can get the seller to eat the cost of the service (it was sold as a serviced watch), then it's not a big deal other than my being out of my new watch for a few weeks. If not, then I suppose we need to get it serviced now and pay the cost. Suggestions on where to get that done? I'm inclined to have the mothership do it but if there's another certified service place in NYC that does as good a job and is less expensive, I'd be down with that.

Big upside is that, just to make sure, we asked them to confirm authenticity and they said it is fully authentic and original (outside only - didn't have them open it up).

Thanks to all for the compliments - other than the whole setting it in the morning thing I'm loving this new watch! Works and keeps perfect time as long as it's on my wrist so at least I get to enjoy it until I need to send it in.

[vcnyls]

Updating on this, in case anyone cares - My wife contacted the place she bought the watch (Sheartime) and Andrew was awesome about it. Took the watch back, brought it to his watch guy to check it out, and I'm getting it back today. Turns out there was an issue with the spring that keeps the power reserve; they fixed it and it's supposedly running perfectly now. Looking forward to being reunited with my new favorite toy. :)

[Alfredo.]

Huge congrats! Awesome watch!