Buying first "nice" watch, steel Datejust

[qwertyu]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a steel Datejust, my first nice watch. I've got some queries regarding this and would really appreciate your advice!

I'll buy a used one, and I've found a (to me, as a noob) surprisingly cheap Datejust (36 mm, 1996) with box but without papers. It's got some scratches on the clasp, but other than that it looks fine to my untrained eye. Costs about £2,500 in Norway, where I live (which I've heard is a relatively cheap country for watches). Does this sound like a decent deal in your opinion?

Would you say it's worth it to insure such a cheap but "nice" watch?

The seller of the specific watch I've been talking about lives in a small town without a Rolex AD. If he's serious (i.e. the watch is real) I assume he'd be willing to go to a non-AD with me to get the authenticity of the watch checked. Are non-ADs able to do this?

I travel a lot by plane, and I've heard about people with fake watches who get into a lot of trouble with customs (fined thousands of pounds). If the customs people ask me about the authenticity of my watch, I don't see how I can prove it's real without the Rolex certificate. Can I send the watch to the Rolex factory and get a certificate in that way?

My current watch is also a 36 mm dress watch. I'm satisfied with that size. My wrist circumference is around 20 cm or 7.85-7.90 cm. Is 36 mm considered to be small for this wrist? I used to own a cheap 40 mm watch, but I found it to be a little bit too big.

Thanks very much for any advice.

[padi56]

First welcome to the forum and £2.500 is still a lot of money so hardly a cheap watch and if no service history budget in price paid a RSC service soon after purchase .And afraid a bit of paper certificate the so called papers are just a warranty,and today bits of paper are the easiest to fake. So don't always rely on the so called papers to prove authenticity,today the only way to check if not bought from a reliable source is get the back off and check movement it will have the cal 3135.

[Archduke]

If you buy the watch and send it to Rolex for service, you will get Rolex service papers back, plus the reassurance that your watch had been checked against their database, and the scratches etc. should get taken care of. Your purchase price needs to factor in the cost of the service though.

We read many stories here about watches being damaged by jewellers. If I were the seller I might not be that enthusiastic about a small local jeweller taking the back off my Rolex, potentially scratching it, etc.

If you are new to Rolex a private sale might not be the best route to ownership.