Insight Five reasons why I love vintage Rolex: Reason Nr 4
Fine WatchesCollector's InsightPart 4: Collecting vintage Rolex is very difficult and risky.
Why do people jump out of planes and skydive? Why do we smoke cigars when we know it is bad for our health? Why do we gamble in Casino’s even though the odds are against us? Why do we run the Ironman which tests the limit of what we are capable of? Why do mountaineers try to climb the world’s highest 7 peaks?
Because humans are attracted to danger and more importantly achieving the impossible.
For that very same reason I am addicted to collecting old Rolex watches: It is difficult to get right, it is impossible to know everything and therefore not without risk.
(For part 3 of the series please see here).
If you want to have peace of mind and security in what you are buying – Rolex collecting might not be for you.
Fact: the vintage Rolex market is full of mystery, forgery, hidden details and just full of the unknown. Watch cases that were previously polished are being made whole again with laser welding. Early submariners that should have radium can pass the test of the Geiger counters (which most collectors are carrying around these days) with luminous being taken from old desk watches and wall clocks.
Guarantee booklets, chronometer papers are being forged so are boxes, rivet bracelets. Case numbers are being re-engraved on Rolex watches.
Is there a spot on an otherwise wonderful dial of an old Rolex gilt lacquer dial? No problem. There are special oil treatment products being made to make the dial appear as new again. Dials are swapped out of cases and being added to other watches to increase the resale value. Even plexi is being forged and wrapped in NOS Rolex paper foil (which also being forged) as are the stickers that many Rolex watches came with at the time.
The criminals are getting better with their forgery and the quality is improving day by day. There are rumours that there are factories making fake dials, cases, engravings in Vietnam, HK and in Italy it seems.
Still want to collect old Rolex watches?
Now what makes collecting Rolex especially problematic is that Rolex officially will not tell you what is wrong with the watch.
With almost every other watch brand you get a certificate of authenticity or extract of the archive. Omega. Vacheron. Audemars. Jaeger Le Coultre. Patek sets the gold standard in this department. Not only do you get an extract of archive with every single watch that ever left the workshop of Patek with the exact date for he watch sold, you also know if a dial was configured a certain way did it have breguet numerals or special dial color etc).
But with Rolex there is just no way of knowing if a dial was Tiffany signed or not (unless Tiffany provides the papers). With Rolex is there no way of knowing when the watch was made exactly (using the serial numbers you can more or less pin-point the year). With Rolex there is no way of knowing how the watch was actually born. Not even if you buy the watch from the original owner with papers because the watch could have been offered with number of different dials and it would not be stated on the original purchase information.
If you think the auction houses like Phillips, Christies , Sotheby’s or Antiquorum can help you – well they can – but they cannot. They know as much as a well-informed collector, sometimes they know more but sometimes they also know less.
Dealers can also only help you in a limited way – their primary interest is to sell you a watch – and not to tell you what exactly happened to the watch before – besides the fact – they most probably don’t know more than the collector who has done his homework. Thats not to say there are no dealers I trust. There are plenty I do trust – as I cannot pretend to know everything myself. But you better do as much homework as you can before you blindly trust a dealer you think well of.
So, you as a vintage Rolex collector have to double check everything. You have to question everything you see. Question everything you hear. You literally have to become paranoid. The more paranoid the better.
Only if your completely paranoid do you survive in the vintage Rolex world!
There is however one benefit to Rolex being so difficult to collect. It is the community of collectors.
Because of the complex nature of Rolex collecting – there is an incredibly strong Rolex collecting community in various forms (blogs, forums, whatsapp groups and chats). The passion this community has and the knowledge and willingness to help and share is incredible. This has created a strong bond among vintage Rolex collectors – and this has led to collectors building an incredible learning eco system to navigate the Rolex world successfully.
Many resources today like VRF (vintage Rolex Forum), RPR (Rolex Passion Report) and other sites are valuable resources for the collector to learn (I list the best learning sites below). Collectors are willing to share their incredible knowledge. In fact often before I buy I double check with other collectors- this has proven to be useful at times. Attending collectors meetings and going to auctions and touching and seeing as many Rolex watches as you can is really the best way of learning. Sooner or later you get an eye for what is right and what is wrong.
But in the end only you, the collector, are the only one who can pull the trigger to buy a watch. You have to be comfortable with the knowledge you learn and possess to make that final decision.
To conclude when you collect vintage Rolex – you are dealing with uncertainty. Large amounts of it. Do I know for sure that all my Rolex watches are all authentic and born that way? I do not. Not with 100% certainty.
Collecting vintage Rolex is to a certain degree playing with fire. Playing with the unknown. This is why I am addicted. And every day I am fighting to make the unknown a smaller part of the equation.
(For Part 5 of the series please see here)
The best learning sites for vintage Rolex are the following websites and resources in no particular order:
