New member from Australia with first 60's Rolex purchase

[ridgehill]

Hi, I'm a fan of 1960's -1970's Swiss automatic watches and have just purchased a very nice 1966 Rolex OP 1003 with a 1570 movement. I have a 1969 Omega Seamaster with 751 chronometer movement that keeps time well and I'm used to it's particular quirks of slightly gaining or losing time depending upon it being worn or not, the resting position and so on. My new Rolex acquisition is more difficult to figure so any advice from the forum would be appreciated.

My Rolex OP is consistently losing at least 40 seconds per day and that amount doesn't appear to change if it is fully wound or worn or rested in any position.

The dealer from the US has particularly good reviews and I made the purchase through Chrono24, the watch itself looks immaculate inside and out for a 60's example. All good but I'm disappointed with it's lack of accuracy for a chronometer. It was described as "keeping nice time" so combined with it's appearance I was satisfied.

When I contacted the dealer about my disappointment about the amount of time it was losing he mentioned that all he knew about the watches history was that it "hadn't been worn in a while".

I assume from his comment that the watch probably wouldn't have been serviced for some considerable time.

As I'm a watch admirer and not a watchmaker my question is would a service likely restore the 1570 movement to some semblance of chronometer accuracy or does the loss of the best part of 1 minute in 24 hours indicate something more serious.

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

Cheers from Oz.

[Allanmodel]

Welcome aboard~~

[yannis]

Welcome! A service should make it run as good as new.

[MonBK]

Welcome

[SearChart]

Welcome!

[Ballaratboy]

Welcome to TRF

[Art 1]

Welcome

[christo4]

I acquired a similar vintage airking last year with a 1520 movement. After service (which cost as much as I paid for it :) ) it runs nicely at -3 sec per day ....which is like twice as good as I was allowing myself to hope for. Good luck!

[Audemars Piguet]

Welcome

[Hairdude1]

Welcome

[tamiya]

Originally Posted by ridgehill

As I'm a watch admirer and not a watchmaker my question is would a service likely restore the 1570 movement to some semblance of chronometer accuracy or does the loss of the best part of 1 minute in 24 hours indicate something more serious.

1570 is best Rolex design of its time even 1m in a week would annoy me.

If history is unknown its always good to get it serviced.

Given its "vintage"... there's tossup between sending it for official work where old parts might get swapped for new originals vs doing it via independents who'll respect your wishes not to replace anything. Some just clean & relube.

In the meanwhile... heck just wear it keep it running continuously for 30d, see how it runs after that... if it's running, it's not gunna hurt it any much more.

If it's anything really serious it WOULDN'T be running or make scraping or rattling noises... but I'm sure you've enough familiarity with mechanical watches to realise that's not normal.

[cc838]

Welcome to TRF and hope the 1570 issue gets sorted so you can start enjoying the watch more.

[Andad]

Hi Ridgehill,

Welcome to TRF.

Based on your comment that this watch is immaculate inside and out I am not sure if you have taken it to your local watchmaker or if this description was based of pix supplied at the time of purchase?

Bas is the expert on Rolex movements but if my '71 DateJust was losing a minute in 24 hours I would take it to either Swiss Timing or a RSC for a service quote.

I can't think of any other way to address this issue.