Daytona 116520 back from the AD repair - Pleasantly Surprised at $

[goodmake]

Just thought I'd share the following info as I never believed I'd go to an AD for repair. My usual authorized Rolex watchmaker said that he wasn't trained on this particular Daytona movement and for that reason Rolex would not provide him parts. This was a big let down. So I bit the bullet and took it to an AD. However, I was presently surprised by the repair pricing and all appears well with the watch.

As you can see from the picture I had a serious mishap with my Daytona 116520 V Serial. I was doing some plumbing work and a large snake whipped back on me and hit my watch instead of my wrist. Possibly my wrist wouldn't have been hurt if the Daytona hadn't taken the hit, but I'd prefer not to know.

So back to the AD. When I dropped it off they provided me with an estimate and said that the repair facility my insist on certain parts be replaced, and if I declined, they'll return the watch to me. Then the repair facility may also indicate recommended/optional parts for replacement.

They conducted an overhaul for $850 with the required replacement of the crystal for $100. They recommended replacement of the watch face and all six hands because they were a little scratched up. But again these parts were optional. I went ahead and authorized these two optional replacements; the new watch face at $600 and six hands at $164. So all in, taxes too, $1,766, which seemed fairly reasonable to me since I believed I'd have an overhaul of my Daytona in my near future anyways. There's the two year warranty card, Rolex pouch and whatnot.

So if I hadn't agree on the optional parts, I could have gotten out of this mishap for less than $1,000.

Frankly, I thought it was going to be a higher price. They had the watch for a little over a month and this was over the Holidays. This turnaround time seemed fairly quick to me.

Any questions?

[fskywalker]

Very nice end result, congrats!!!


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[worldofoyster]

glad you enjoy the watch

[4 Aussies]

Congrats, looks showroom new!!

[Oldfellow]

Great result, have to be pleased with that.
Beautiful watch.

[Mobokid]

Congratulations!


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[LookingforDadsWatch]

Whoa! Good looking leather service pouch. Hadn’t seen that one.

[Kostas853]

Whoa! Can we get more details on this snake!?! Did the snake do that to the watch or did you reflex and bang the watch against something hard?

[faimag]

Originally Posted by Kostas853

Whoa! Can we get more details on this snake!?! Did the snake do that to the watch or did you reflex and bang the watch against something hard?

I was wondering the same.

Good call with the service though. Looks like new!

[Cauhauna]

Wow, 17 posts and a 2009 join date. great to see you here.
The watch looks great.

[cts]

My favorite Daytona!!! So sleek and classy!!!

[Bxtek]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about this mishap. Glad you didn't get hurt! With the impact that your watch took, you might have done some damage to your arm/wrist. This bill you received here is most likely much cheaper than the doctor's invoice!

In all seriousness, thanks for sharing this. To be honest with you I am also a bit surprised at the prices here. Very reasonable indeed! Crystal, dial, hands are all less than I would have expected. Plus in the end you get a 2 year warranty and one of those cool new leather pouches! Deal!

[Yadi_Collector]

She looks great!
Even the band looks new, I guess they polished it a bit.
Do you have a photo of pre-service?

[goodmake]

To answer the last question first, I didn't take any detailed photos before I put the watch in for service. I can assure you I wear this Daytona regularly and the band, pre service, was scuffed up with daily wear but no deep scratches or anything that couldn't be polished out. Now that its back from service the band looks new and the clasp is like a mirror. That mirror finish won't last. I bought this watch to wear and that's why its insured.

As for the snake is was a large electric powered rental model with cable at least a 1/2 inch in diameter for working up to 6 inch stack pipes. Of course when I rented it there were warnings all over the place that I had to acknowledge and initial. Specifically about how much tension the electric motor can generate in the snake and that you should, with both hands, hold it with a death grip and leather gloves. It simply got out of my hands, and to answer the question, the snake whipped back with lightening speed and impacted the watch (instead of my wrist) directly. As soon as it happened, I reeled in the snake, unplugged the machine, put it back in the van and returned it to the rental center and called a plumber.

[Bizcut1]

Watch looks great - congrats on a good result!

[Cliffnopus]

Congrats; great results. Also, kudo's to you for actually wearing and using your watch and not treating it like a safe queen.

[mountainjogger]

Great result and price. Good story too.

[AD337]

Great to see. - amazing watch !! Post more pics when you have a chance, I would love to see how their polish job came out (while we still can before the daily wearing gets to it of course !!)

[JoseR]

Don't understand why some people wear their Rolex to do physical work and then are surprised when it gets damaged? You can do whatever you want with your Rolex, but I don't wear any watches if I'm doing physical work because I know it can get damaged.

[Fleetlord]

Originally Posted by JoseR

Don't understand why some people wear their Rolex to do physical work and then are surprised when it gets damaged? You can do whatever you want with your Rolex, but I don't wear any watches if I'm doing physical work because I know it can get damaged.

I wouldn't wear any watch doing physical works, but as the story says, just some time and a little bit of money out of pocket and it's essentially a new watch, so I suppose it doesn't really matter if it gets smashed up.

[Kiddodoc]

Looks like new! Bet you are stoked!

[carnage9191]

Glad to hear another good experience at RSC, I used them last year to service my 16013 and it went smoothly.


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[dardeca]

Looks good. From the receipt it appears they sent it to Rolex for service (as opposed to doing it in house).

[Mr Ben]

Glad you’re ok and thanks for this - i don’t buy into the “this is why you should wrap your watch in cotton wool” argument. For me, it’s the opposite - I actually find it very reassuring that this level of damage can be fixed at a reasonable cost.

[KY..]

Did the RSC polish the bezel too?
Looks like a new watch from a distance.
I would pay $1750 on a Daytona complete service/repair for that kind of end result for sure.
That’s like money in the bank!

[Laostuh]

Am I the only one who thougt OP was talking about a literal snake? LOL.. That's a great result I'd be happy too for under $2k, you have what looks to me like a brand new watch.

[rmlovett1]

Nice

[garyk]

great result!!

[goodmake]

There's one other clarification that I should have made in the original post about sending my Daytona out from an AD. Again, I never thought I'd have an AD work on my watch. So I'm just adding this info in for those of you who feel the same way I did.

So when dropping my Daytona off, the AD guesstimated that the watch, given its age and that I had no idea if it had been overhauled before, would need an overhaul and new crystal. He also considered that some of the glass would get into the movement, and an overhaul would be needed anyways. All that, plus a fudge factor, the AD asked for a preauthorization $ amount of $1,250. You can see that preauthorization $ amount printed on the receipt above. So I agreed to $1,250 for any Rolex required parts or service. Anything Rolex required above $1,250 would have to be approved by me and I could decline and get my watch back. So if the AD had called me back and said, Rolex requires an overhaul, new crystal and you must also replace - I don't know - the "Johnson Rod". And the Johnson Rod costs $1,000, then that would have pushed the Rolex required work beyond my preauthorization of $1,250 and I could have said no, and they would have sent the watch back to me no charge. But just to clarify, my preauthorization was for a dollar amount only, not specific items. In other words they could have said, an overhaul is optional, but Rolex requires a new Johnson Rod and new crystal, which would come in below $1,250, they would have started work. Even when dropping off the watch I had no idea that I would NOT be getting an overhaul. The preauthorization is for a $ amount only, its not specific to a service or specific part replacement.

Now in my case, the Rolex required work and parts came to less than $1,000 (overhaul and new crystal) which was less than my pre-authorization level. Given that, Rolex could start work right away. No one needs to call me at that dollar level. I've already authorized it. But as explained, they did call and said, your watch face and hands have some minor scratches, they're not broken, but while we're in here, would you like us to replace those with new parts? Their quoted parts price seemed very reasonable to me and I agreed and they went ahead with those optional parts.

The only point of this is just to say, I'm in control of the $. I authorized the "pre-authorization" $ level. If there's some surprise part that Rolex says must be replaced, and it pushes the price waaaaay over my pre-authorization, I can decline.

[173rdabn]

All's well that ends well. Looks great.