Servicing - RSC vs Third Party?

[theturtle]

Hi TRF,

Hope you could educate me on something. What exactly are the differences in sending your watch to rolex or sending it to a third party repair shop? I saw a wonderful thread made by Vanessa and it had me thinking, why would someone spend 600+ sending their watch to rolex when Vanessa does it for half the cost?

I understand that the watch manufacture has a tendency to overcharge at times but there has to be a reason why the premium is almost 100% more than what other third parties charge. I've seen people who are authorized to work on rolex charge only 200-250 for the same service (at least thats what im assuming) that rolex charges.

Another thing that had me curious was, I was watch shopping at liljenquist a few days ago and I asked them about their servicing. They said they were also authorized to do rolex servicing and that a full servicing including refinishing is only 350 while rolex charges 650 for a service plus 300 to refinish. I was under the impression the 650 included the refinishing on the case and bracelet. Were they just leading me on?

Lastly, is rolex's refinishing on bracelets lacking when compared to third parties such as michael young? Im just miffed on the price discrepancy between sending it to RSC or a third party. If MY does a better refinishing job, would it be more cost effective/smarter to just send the watch head to rolex and bracelet to MY?

So many questions.

[jsb15]

I'm thinking of sending a bracelet to MY. He appears to do a credible job on bracelets that RSC will only replace. Also, RSC wont work on a watch with any non-factory parts. So if you have a watch with a refinished dial or aftermarket product, RSC will only do the service if you let them replace those parts with new at an additional high cost. I wanted to try RSC with my latest DD service but once they told me that the starting price was $950 for a fully working watch and my reputable jeweler known for pre-owned rolex sales wanted $250, that helped make up my mind real fast.

[Tools]

It is almost always more expensive to send anything to the manufacturer for service than to an independent (it isn't really a third party, that would imply that there's a couple of middlemen in there somewhere)

Rolex doesn't charge 350 for a service and 300 for the refinish.. It's 650 and refinishing is free. With that 650 they change all movement expendables like escapement jewels, main gears and mainsprings, and refinishing is done to strict tolerance to ensure contour integrity.

Some shops just disassemble to major components, sonic clean and reassemble so be wary if all you are shopping is price.. They aren't all the same..