Spare parts.

[Speedbird-1]

Vis à vis an earlier post regarding the servicing of an old Tudor.

(Philippe. I have a Pelagos 39, FXD & old Tudor Submariner. I beat the poop out of that Sub daily for 29 years until it finally went in for service and Rolex sent a nice note back after fixing it saying that it was time for me to buy a new watch as parts were now very rare for my Tudor Sub.)

Do owners of vintage Rolex and Tudor watches need to worry regarding servicing?

[VictorGMT]

This seems inevitable?

1996 Thunderbird (the car, not the watch). What percentage of replacement parts are available from Ford? Very few I suspect, you are not buying a new front fender from Ford.

85,000 were made. So, there is some aftermarket support, and TONS of common parts across the Ford line of the late 1990s.

But... if there were (guessing) 10,000 Tudor Subs made that year... Rolex is out of spare parts... not a lot of commonality across the rest of the line... a $400 NOS balance wheel, when made in quantity... would a precision machinist charge $1,500 to make quantity one? How much more dire is the situation for a $40 pinion gear, is someone willing to tool up to make quantity 100 per year for $350?

Just musing... if Ford drops support of a $25,000 car by year 30, can we be upset if Tudor does the same on a (guessing) $5,000 watch? If the aftermarket fails to fully support 85,000 units in the field, will it fail to support 10,000?

[TuRo]

No plenty of eta spares, doner watches etc - that’s shameful if RSC did that !! ….this question has been coming up since (I recall 1977) when someone asked me this about their ‘old’ bubble back and 6202 needing parts.

[offrdmania]

ADs and RSCs wont source parts outside of Rolex factory inventory. Even though there are tons of parts out there, Rolex may have discontinued parts for certain models due to low availability.
A good independent can find parts by other means outside of Rolex inventory.

[linesiders]

Rolex wants you to buy a new watch. It's not difficult to find the parts to keep a great watch going, particularly where it has value.

Originally Posted by TuRo

No plenty of eta spares, doner watches etc - that’s shameful if RSC did that !! ….this question has been coming up since (I recall 1977) when someone asked me this about their ‘old’ bubble back and 6202 needing parts.

^^^ THis

[Dan S]

Originally Posted by Speedbird-1

Do owners of vintage Rolex and Tudor watches need to worry regarding servicing?

Based on previous threads on the topic, some people definitely do worry about it. But worrying is a choice. And you could choose instead to enjoy your watches.