Rolex is a name synonymous with quality, so it is perhaps unsurprising we see many Rolex watches in our workshop – Maintaining a quality item makes absolute sense. These may be more recent or vintage models, and vary from daily wear watches through to those worn only on special occasions.
This watch is a ladies Rolex Yacht-Master, sadly it arrived having suffered from water ingress. In previous blog posts such as this one here we discuss how water can affect a watch movement. Depending on the severity of the water ingress and how long it has been left in the watch, damage may range from relatively minor through to very serious indeed.
This Yacht-Master was at the absolute serious end of the spectrum. Water had entered the watch through the crown and there was very little left undamaged. All movement components showed water damaged to varying levels. On top of this the dial was in a sorry state.
To restore this watch back to excellent working order we would need to replace the vast majority of movement components, complete a full service, change all seals and to restore the dial.
Through our extensive network of suppliers we were able to source everything we needed to repair the Rolex calibre 2235 movement. The only parts it was possible to save were some of the plates and bridges, which we were able to clean up following extensive hand and machine cleaning. With all the new components we can service the movement – cleaning everything in our Elma Solvex watch movement cleaning machine before reassembling and oiling as per the manufacturers specifications and best practices.
We work alongside a specialist dial restorer who was able to restore the damaged Yacht-Master dial for us. To do this the dial is completely stripped back to the base metal, before it is re-painted, the text added and the restored indices reapplied. Again, we’ve written a blog post specifically about dial restoration in the past which you can find here.
All we needed to do now was to complete the last few finishing touches – we noticed the bezel click spring needed replacing so that was done while the case was stripped apart for ultrasonic cleaning. We replaced the seals and completed both a wet and dry pressure test to confirm water resistance had been restored.
With all the case work done we just needed to rebuild the watch and double check timekeeping before putting it on test. The end result is very satisfying – taking a watch which was in a truly sorry state and bringing it back to life is always rewarding. Our client was delighted with the outcome and this Rolex Yacht-Master is ready for many more years of reliable service.
Yours sincerely
David Clark FGA DGA MJVA PJDip. PJGemDip.
Managing Director, JVA Registered Valuer®
W.E. Clark & Son Limited