Is my brand new Rolex DJ ruined?

[SkyJuice]

Originally Posted by dchernikoff

just read thru this thread. Highly entertaining and educational -- quite the exciting saga!
-dan

+1

[Robtayham]

What a crazy long thread! Just read the whole thing.

As I read it, I kept thinking he’s trolling. It was his first post. At one point, he mentions his girlfriend doesn’t yet have a gold wedding ring, to only later on say he bought a watch for his ‘Mrs’. There were several TRF members that recreated the potential photoshop. The photo of his repaired watch shows a lot of swirls and scratches, as if RSC didn’t polish it. And he never actually posted any correspondence or service estimates from Rolex.

Sorry, but I’m not convinced. I know, I know, everything on the internet is true....

[Tricolore66]

Speak for yourself. I don’t recall anyone electing you forum spokesperson. I’ve seen something similar happen with other watch brands and happen to believe it happened in this case.

Originally Posted by bezler

Was your neighbor's watch authentic? Did he buy it at an AD? We don't believe it, post pictures. And if you do, prove that they're not PhotoShopped. Post more videos. We've been wearing our Rolex watches for decades in hot tubs, no problem. Tell him to post his original paperwork too. We still won't believe him because many of us have been around the forums for years and we've seen it all, scammers and fakes. Did he say it's authentic? Where did he buy it? He said it was from an AD?? Well how would we know that, you think we waste time reading threads? I'm no professional chemist, but I do know that gold mixture can't react, everyone knows that. Any chemist that says otherwise, well he's probably a chemistry expert, and we all know that experts are all wrong. No way that it's real, I just went swimming yesterday and no problem.



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[Gold Crown]

If whom ever owned the hot tub were using chlorine bleach instead of the proper chemicals in the water it could have discolored the gold that way. Chlorine oxidizes gold. Chlorine and gold do not mix.

[Meyrin]

Originally Posted by Mr. Vanos

This is why your mom always warned you to never pee in the pool

[ganagati]

Originally Posted by LukeGreg

ITS FINALLY BACK!

Had the call from my AD today (please note I didn’t purchase the watch from them originally and they treated me as if I had, Amazing service from Jamie at Watches Of Switzerland In Cardiff - will be purchasing more from him in the future)

But It’s not back, it looks like they have polished it as the bezel isn’t as sharp as my other DJ but it takes a real good look/feel (I might even be wrong) but they have done an amazing job and didn’t charge me a penny.

Also, Rolex Head Office in Geneva seen this post so we know they’re watching and paying attention.

Really Happy, hats off to Rolex & Watches Of Switzerland in Cardiff, Wales!

Glad to see it back, and that things were made right!

Did you ever hear their hypothesis as to why this happened? It seems odd that slightly elevated levels of chlorine would have resulted in such a drastic change.

[Lucifer]

It’s a fake watch

[FloridaSam]

Originally Posted by Dsmith1974

Haha! I’d rather have an untarnished DJ than anything a suburban sex pond could throw at me. ��

"Suburban Sex Pond" is my new band name!

Originally Posted by Lucifer

It’s a fake watch

um. How 'bout no?

[nworbled]

Good thing it's a slow night at work cause it allowed for me to read all 18 pages of this thread with bated breath. Whew. It was like reading a novel--I knew the ending would be about 18 pages away but I kept flipping the page reading and reading--excited for the outcome.

I would have shat myself if that happened to my watch. Glad that Rolex resolved the issue to the OP's satisfaction. Regardless of what others think, if the OP is happy with the outcome, that's all that really matters.

And congrats on your interim purchases while you were waiting for Rolex to resolve the situation!

[goldfixer21]

30 seconds in a Speed Brite and it would have been back to normal without polishing

[jcj]

Glad to hear it worked out well, OP.

[Stellite]

What happened here can happen to any and all gold jewelry. Here is an article that explains it pretty well.

Technical Articles
We have hundreds of educational articles available on our web site and we're always adding more, so come back often to search our database.

Posted on January 1, 2008

Do Chemicals Affect Your Gold?
Author Jerry BowersCategories Consumer Tips, MetalsTags chemicals, gold, metal options, tarnish

The wife loses a stone; the husband blames the wife; the wife blames the jeweler; the jeweler blames the manufacturer; the manufacturer looks for an answer. Hoover & Strong answers the question. What causes most prong breakage? Chlorine and bromine. Where does it come from? Hot tubs, swimming pools and laundry products. Hoover & Strong has conducted a controlled experiment to determine the effect of common chlorine and bromine products on jewelry settings. We tested household bleach, (heated and unheated), hot tub chlorine and bromine solutions, and a chlorine free dishwashing detergent. We tested 14K and 18K nickel white settings; set and unset, rhodium plated and not plated; palladium white gold and platinum settings.

Hoover & Strong’s testing rates their products from the most durable to the least durable as follows: Platinum; rhodium plated 14K palladium white gold, 14K palladium white gold; rhodium plated nickel white gold, 18K nickel white gold; and 14K nickel white gold.

Chlorine and bromine are commonly used chemical products to prevent bacteria from growing in our drinking water, in swimming pools and hot tubs. Too much of these compounds added may cause a human health threat and a durability problem for settings. The higher the concentration, the longer the exposure and the higher the temperature, the faster the deterioration of the settings.

Stress occurs in metals when they are worked. Stress can be relieved in metals by proper heat treating. A simple experiment to demonstrate this can be performed by bending a paper clip until It breaks off, count the number of times you bend the paper clip. Next bend the same paper clip just short of its breaking point. Heat the paper clip to a cherry red and let it cool. This IS called annealing. Now bend the paper clip and count the number of times you have to bend it before it breaks. The annealing relieved the paper clip stress.

The test solutions are listed in order from the product causing the most damage to the least harmful.

The rings soaked in heated bleach suffered the most catastrophic failure. The 14K nickel white gold was the first to fail in all solutions except the household detergent. The household detergent had little or no effect on the rings or settings. The test was stopped when the first setting failed and all items were compared.

Based on our testing, a consumer wearing a 14K nickel white gold setting would lose a stone or expect prong breakage as follows:

Results Of Each Solution

5% chlorine bleach heated to 110°F, prong failure would occur after 21 hours of exposure. Only the platinum and palladium white gold settings held their stones in the worst test solution.
5% chlorine bleach room temperature -prong failure would occur after 120 hours of exposure.
5 ppm (parts per million) chlorine using hot tub chemicals-prong failure would occur after 312 hours or 156 days.*
5 ppm (parts per million) bromine using hot tub chemicals-prong failure would occur after 384 hours or 192 days. *
Household detergent -no visible effects on the setting.
* based on 2 hours a day, 7 days a week
Recommendations

Hoover & Strong’s recommendations: Use platinum settings, 14K palladium white settings. Rhodium plate 18K or 14K white settings, the rhodium plating will provide a protective coating to protect the setting; similar to paint stopping rust.

Last but not least, tell your customers not to wear their jewelry in hot tubs and swimming pools. Take jewelry off when using laundry or cleaning products. NEVER, NEVER clean rings with bleach. Suggest that they bring them to you for cleaning and a checkup, just like going to the dentist to have their teeth cleaned and checked.

Copyright® 1998 Hoover & Strong

http://technical-articles.hooverands...ect-your-gold/

[STEELINOX]

[edited for useless content] Please see next post ~ !

[STEELINOX]

Originally Posted by LukeGreg

I’ve give it a clean - didn’t make a difference. Here is a pic.

OH MAN, ya got the watch too hot from the water in the tub ~ !

[DGP]

My AD “told me off” for wearing expensive watches in the sauna and hot tub. He then went on to sell me a bronze Tudor.
I’ve had fun watching it change colour!

[Burgman]

Originally Posted by schoolboy

This is interesting OP.

Take it to your AD to have them look at it and explain the situation to them, then keep us updated please

Good luck

You should consider this IMO..

[mtasquared]

Man, that was awful. Good stuff to know, and glad it worked out for you (edited my post). I have a two tone Rolex, and do not want to go through what you went through.

[Georgevlado]

This was an interesting post

[amh]

Originally Posted by Georgevlado

This was an interesting post

[Gab27]

This was an interesting read and I am glad it worked out. One question I am left with though is if a dip bath like Connoisseurs Fine Jewelry Cleaner would have taken this off? I've had sterling suffer severe discoloration from a hot tub and it has taken it right to new, although obviously there would be more considerations with the watch head.

[ducatiti]

This just got linked via another thread. Too lazy to browse, what page shows the solution? :)

[GGGMT]

525


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[ColoradoTime]

Originally Posted by GGGMT

525


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[JDsnewwatch]

Halides on the periodic table can influence the color and strength (yes, strength) of gold. You might get lucky and get the orange hugh out with a professional polish or dip of some sort. The best option is to go to an AD or local jeweler for advice. This is not the time for home remedies.

For those that didn't know, halides include fluoride, chloride, bromide, iodide etc. We don't usually come in contact with halides unless, of course, you happen to jump into a pool or hot tub. In the case of high-purity gold, the color can change (a simple search on youtube will show lots of science experiments showing how). Also, over time, it WILL weaken the gold. So, if you or someone you know wears diamonds set in high-purity gold. Keep the jewelry out of the pool. If you MUST swim with diamonds, platinum is a better choice.

[MikeyV]

I remember this one.

That photo on page one is photoshopped. That's my feeling.

[ducatiti]

Originally Posted by MikeyV

I remember this one.

That photo on page one is photoshopped. That's my feeling.

Sup Mikey.. and I thought the problem was resolved. lol

[Auric Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by ducatiti

Sup Mikey.. and I thought the problem was resolved. lol

It’s not hard to find.. just scroll back a couple pages or look through the OP’s previous posts as he doesn’t have many.

https://www.rolexforums.com/showpost...&postcount=440

[creepy neville]

Originally Posted by MTBer

18 karat gold is around 10% copper. If copper is oxidized by chlorine to copper (II) chloride anhydrous, the result is a brown color...which, when combined with yellow gold, would probably look red-ish.

If something like this really is what happened, I hope at the very least it shuts up the snide nitwits who mock anyone for asking whether it's safe to perform a given activity while wearing an expensive watch.

This ^^^^

[Robf52]

Originally Posted by LukeGreg

To add... it’s not like I was in there a long time - it was around 30 minutes before I actually noticed the colour change - at first I thought (I must be drunk) but obviously not.

Did you come out with all your body parts?

[alphadweller]

I just read the whole thread. Fascinating.

OP got the watch polished eventually, to his satisfaction. I was hoping for some chemical treatment to reverse the initial reaction of chloride/bromide on gold. A solution to prevent the watch from being polished.

At least I've learnt I won't be taking my TT Sub into a hot tub anytime soon. Will stick to steel.