Hologram

[NickD]

Hi Folks,
Newbie to the site.Recenctly retired and getting back into collecting.Have a question ,Is the hologram on the crystal in use on late model rolex's.
Thanks and great site I can see I can learn a lot from you watch guru's.
Nick

[ayres]

hi, nick, and welcome to the forums. congrats on retirement (i'm still too young for that so i'm unsure if retirement is a good thing). anyway, by hologram, i think you mean the laser etching that is on the crystal at the six-o'clock position. the hologram was the green sticker on the caseback. someone else can chime in on when it began.

also note that if the crystal is replaced by rolex service, the laser etching is different to denote that it was a replaced crystal.

[ayres]

holograms on the case back were discontinued in the early z-serials on the sports models. maybe that is the same production period for all oyster models?

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by NickD

Hi Folks,
Newbie to the site.Recenctly retired and getting back into collecting.Have a question ,Is the hologram on the crystal in use on late model rolex's.
Thanks and great site I can see I can learn a lot from you watch guru's.
Nick

Hi Nick,

Welcome to TRF!!

Holograms were stuck on the back of new watches until around 2 years ago, but now discontinued.

You must be referring to the laser etching Rolex coronet on the sapphire crystal at the '6' position - not easy to spot with the naked eye - you would need a 10x loupe and have to hold the watch under a powerful reading lamp.

Here's a picture of what a Hologram used to look like on a brand new Rolex....




And here's a picture of what the laser etching should look like.....

[ParisDakarBmw]

Welcome! Be ware of fakes with the etching. Someone had a thread on this about a week ago. The crown was off center a little.

[NickD]

Thanks Guys ,
My bad ,I was referring to the laser etching on the cyrstal.Just purchased a F16613 T.T.
Sub.And could not find the ecthing.But I think it predates the process.
Nick

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by NickD

Thanks Guys ,
My bad ,I was referring to the laser etching on the cyrstal.Just purchased a F16613 T.T.
Sub.And could not find the ecthing.But I think it predates the process.
Nick

No, it doesn't. An F-series would make it around 2005 and it will definitely have the laser etching which, in reality, was started up with quite a few models way back in 2003.

JJ