When my grandmother passed away last year, my mom inherited her Rolex: a dainty ladies’ watch with a distinct, scalloped pattern on the gold band and a circle of small diamonds lining its round face.
The watch was gorgeous — a timeless timepiece that would not look out of place on a fashion influencer today. It was also a lasting, physical reminder of the beauty and class that my grandma, the matriarch of a large Lebanese family, exuded effortlessly.
But the watch didn’t work, and when my mom brought it into a certified Rolex retailer for repair, they told her there was nothing they could do, and that they didn’t service vintage Rolex watches like this one.
When she brought it into another jeweler to see if they could fix it, they said they weren’t confident they could and recommended she try elsewhere. They also told her that when this happens, some people simply think of their watch as a bracelet instead.
Rolex dominates the luxury watch market, with industry experts estimating that the company produces and sells over one million watches annually. In 2023, Rolex raked in a record $10 billion in sales, according to a report by Morgan Stanley and the Swiss firm LuxeConsult, accounting for 30% of the total market share.
Rolex watches are often considered investment pieces or family heirlooms, a hefty purchase justified by the idea that they could later sell for a lot more or be passed down to future generations. When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wore a $50,000 Rolex while visiting a maximum security prison in El Salvador, a spokesperson said Noem bought the watch to wear and “one day pass down to her children.”
Given that reputation, we were surprised that the Rolex retailer said it couldn’t work on my grandma’s old watch. Not only that, they also recommended against bringing it to a non-Rolex authorized shop to get it fixed.
“If you bring a vintage piece to a Rolex service center, it’s not uncommon to be turned away,” Greg Petronzi, a watchmaker and expert in repairing vintage Rolexes, told me. “It’s really a shame because these are still magnificent watches. They’re collectible. They’re important.”
Industry experts said Rolex has phased out servicing many of its vintage watches despite their role in its legacy and reputation as a symbol of wealth, innovation, and quality.
When I contacted Rolex, a spokesperson directed me to the company policy confirming that not all of the brand’s vintage watches can be serviced.
“Rolex watches are designed and built to last,” the company says, adding, “As a result, there is no limit on how long a Rolex watch can keep working, being handed down from one generation to the next, and living several lives.”
However, the company also says “the availability of parts and labour is assured for every watch for at least 35 years following its withdrawal from the catalogue.”
Meaning, if a watch was discontinued over 35 years ago, you could be out of luck.
Why it’s hard to service vintage Rolex watches
Eric Wind, a leading expert on vintage watches and the owner of Wind Vintage, told me that it’s well known in the watch world that over the past decade or so, Rolex has phased out servicing many of its watches from the 1970s and earlier.
One reason is that they no longer manufacture the parts needed to repair them, according to Petronzi, who’s been called the “go-to repair guy for vintage Rolex collectors.” As a result, sourcing or recreating the necessary parts can be extremely pricey and time-consuming.
For the independent shops that do service vintage Rolexes, it often means tracking down pieces on the secondhand market that are no longer made, Petronzi said. Even sourcing the necessary tools can be difficult — he recently invested $15,000 in a hard-to-find tool that he needed to restore movement in an old watch.
According to Michael Woods, a horologist who worked for years as a head watchmaker with Rolex before going independent in 2017, Rolex service centers also have strict standards that they need to meet.
Woods said that if Rolex cannot guarantee it can meet that standard, which involves making the watch as functional, reliable, and safe as possible, they may not accept it.
Rolex does not have its own storefronts. Instead, it has official jewelers and boutiques that sell and service its watches. Woods noted that while Rolex likes to maintain a universal standard across its service centers, there could be some variation.
For instance, he said that when he worked at a Rolex service center in Melbourne, Australia, he was still servicing some Military Submariners or Paul Newman Daytonas even though many service centers around the world had stopped accepting them, deeming it too risky.
Rolex will service some vintage models, and the company has a specialized Restoration Atelier in Geneva that will take on especially rare, historic, or important pieces.
But generally speaking, if you bring an old watch into a Rolex service center, especially one pre-1980s, you might get turned away.
Petronzi said Rolex stands in contrast to other luxury watch brands that “will service a watch no matter how old it is, even if it means having to remanufacture a part that’s no longer in existence.”
Patek Philippe, for instance, says it will service any watch produced in its workshops going back to 1839. Watches that are 35 years old or more must be serviced at its restoration atelier in Geneva.
There are still ways to get an old Rolex fixed
The good news for vintage Rolex lovers is that independent watchmakers, like Petronzi and Woods, will service them.
The watchmakers noted that, in addition to potentially requiring scarce parts, restoration also requires highly specialized skills, so fixing vintage Rolexes can be costly. In some cases, it could cost more than the watch’s value, they said.
They recommended doing your research to find a reputable watchmaker, preferably someone specializing in vintage Rolexes, rather than taking it into any random jeweler. One helpful resource is the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute, a US trade association representing the timekeeping industry.
Wind, who previously was a vice president and senior specialist of watches for the auction house Christie’s, noted that it’s important to consider what matters to you when getting your watch repaired and to communicate that clearly to the watchmaker.
Sometimes, when old watches are repaired, watchmakers make changes that may improve their functionality but lower their value for collectors, who prefer the watch’s originality be preserved. For instance, that could be replacing an original part with something new or polishing the case to remove the patina.
Wind said he’s seen a watch that could have been worth $1 million, but that after servicing it was worth less than $30,000, which is what the owner paid to get it fixed.
Woods said when he worked at Rolex, he always encouraged customers to do a lot of research on their watch before getting it serviced and to make sure they were okay with having parts replaced.
The industry experts said Rolex has always been a forward-looking brand focused on innovation. When it services its vintage watches, they said it prioritizes making the most functional watch possible, which could mean subbing out an old part because the watch itself will function better without it.
They also said there are some signs the company is embracing its history more than in the past.
Rolex partnered with writer Nicholas Foulkes to publish its first-ever book in October, an authorized history of the Oyster Perpetual Submariner, the brand’s iconic watch. The company also launched the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned program in 2022, allowing its official retailers to sell certified authentic, secondhand Rolex watches at least three years old.
Rolex watches might still be a good investment
Not everyone thinks buying watches as an investment is a good idea. “I don’t like it when people compare watches to stocks. It sends the wrong message and is dangerous,” Jean-Frédéric Dufour, the CEO of Rolex, said last year. “We make products, not investments.”
The industry experts I spoke to said Rolexes could still be considered a good investment and an heirloom to pass down. They are excellent watches that should remain in good condition, they said.
Even though Rolex might not help you fix them, the collectors themselves don’t seem to be going anywhere, and there will likely always be independent watchmakers doing repairs, especially for truly rare and valuable watches.
Petronzi, who is also a licensed psychologist and professor at New York University, said if anything, he thinks it’s possible Rolex’s stance on old watches could make some of them more valuable. “People want stuff that they can’t have,” he said. “When Rolex says, ‘Oh, forget this watch, we’re not even going to service it,’ there’s a part of our psyche that says, ‘You know what? That just makes me want this more.'”
Based on the photos I shared with Wind, the vintage watch dealer, he said my grandmother’s watch was probably made in New York City in the 1970s. That lines up with family memory, which puts the purchase of the watch around 1973, when my mom was 14 and remembers going with her dad to the store to buy it.
Because it’s likely not Swiss-made, he said the watch was not particularly valuable, nor would it be particularly interesting to vintage collectors. It’s probably worth a bit more than the gold weight, maybe $4,000.
But the thing is, it’s worth a lot more than that to my family. Its value as an heirloom is not based on the quality of the gold, the sparkle of the diamonds, or the mechanisms inside that should make it tick.
Its value comes from the fact that it was my grandma’s — that my grandfather bought it for her and that it adorned her wrist for half a century, through each generation of our family. And after all, when you wear a fancy watch, how often do you actually look at it to tell the time anyway?
Still, I asked my sources for recommendations on where my mom can get it fixed.
