Hour hand resistance on a Lady’s Datejust
 

Hi. My wife’s 1990 69173 Datejust was serviced by RSC in February 2023, and since then, it has gone back five times due to the date disk getting stuck halfway from 12 am until about 3 am, when it finally snaps fully to the next date. I last picked it up from RSC last month on February 13 and decided to monitor the date change daily for a month to ensure it snapped over fully each time, as the issue was random rather than constant. Thankfully, the date seems to be fixed.

Now that my home test is over, I went to set the correct time and noticed that the hour hand encounters resistance every five minutes as I move it with the crown - I have to turn it slightly harder to get past each “bump.” I asked my wife to set the time without mentioning what I felt, and she noticed it right away as well.

Does anyone know what’s going on? Thanks in advance for any insight!

https://i.imgur.com/6t0DRn7.jpeg

Unfortunately, it sounds as if you’ll have to send it back again. How frustrating. If it doesn’t have sentimental value, it may be time to trade it, for a new watch for her, after it gets serviced.

Kat


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It’s her first Rolex, and it’s a birth year piece, so it holds a lot of sentimental value. I doubt I could convince her to part with it - nor would I want to. I’ll book another appointment and see what they say, then post an update here.

I'd assume there's a gear that has a slight bend, or burr on it. Or, something is touching the front (minute hand) or back of the dial's stick rivets (5-minute intervals). A qualified watchmaker should easily be able to spot the problem.