52/53 Oysterdate Precision

[Go675]

I hadn't intended on buying a watch last Saturday (let alone a Rolex) but it was a case of right place, right time. In the space of 3 hours I'd went from seeing it in the shop window to owning it.

The place I bought it didn't have access to the interior (they did say it had been authenticated.........), so I bought it with the assurance that if anything was wrong then I could get a refund. Of course I'd hoped that it was correct and to my absolutely untrained eye it appears to be (with thanks to a watch repair shop yesterday who kindly popped the case and let me grab a couple of photos).

It since transpires that the watch passed through Bonhams in September 2024 (their pictures of the front of the watch are far better than any I can take). They didn't have any pictures of the watch movement/case back so it was pleasing to see the movement number and "IV52" marking on the case back from their description match when it was opened yesterday. I've read through a few posts on here and I understand that it's not possible to say with 100% certainty whether it would have been made in 1952 or 1953 (IV52 suggests 1952, 881XXX serial suggests either 1952 or 1953), hence the inclusion of both in the thread title.

I'm delighted with the purchase for a number of reasons. First and foremost I think it's a great looking watch. The smaller case size suits my wrist and the price paid is in a range that I'm comfortable with (I doubt I could sleep with both the spend and then the wearing of anything modern from Rolex).

The watch is running circa 30s slow daily and I don't plan on wearing it every day. I had considered having it serviced, but given it's age and so far it appears to be working well enough, I don't know if it's worthwhile? More than happy to hear anyone's thoughts on this.