[springer]

I have no horse in this race and am not friends or an acquaintance of either party here. I have owned dozens of Rolexes and sold a few myself the past five or six years. I prefer the vintage watches where most of my experience has been since owning various Rolex models.

Regarding your comment on the crystal, I know that there are aftermarket crystals being made with the same magnification as genuine Rolex crystals. For someone not to know a genuine crystal from an aftermarket crystal, which has been installed on a watch, seems very plausible and reasonable to me. I wouldn't have a clue one way or the other if a crystal was genuine Rolex. Many owners and sellers of preowned Rolex would have a very hard time identifying aftermarket crystals.

As far as not being able to identify genuine crystals, let me make an analogy with the aftermarket bezel inserts. The aftermarket bezel insert for GMTs, Subs etc is a very thriving business. Many owners opt for these inserts because they do not want to pay the expense of a new Rolex insert - the only thing they care about is having an insert that looks new. I see these aftermarket inserts installed on Rolex watches all the time, and 99% of the buying public or dealers would not be able to identify an aftermarket insert from genuine even though there are differences in the fonts between the two.