Need opinion on 5508 Submariner

[bennyp]

Hey All -

I'm talking about a trade + cash for this watch: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROLEX-SUBMAR...item2eda1bdb5b

The seller says he's owned the watch for 20 years in his personal collection and hasn't done anything to bastardize it during that time but cannot confirm if anything was redone/replaced/etc before then.

Considering this is a nearly 60 year old watch and a pretty sought after reference, what are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

[QueueCumber]

Not original dial and bezel insert. Not sure about bezel and case. In particular with bezel, I think it should probably be copper fluting. This is perhaps a service bezel?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROLEX-SUBMAR...item2eda1bdb5b

100% pass on that one IMO.

[bennyp]

Originally Posted by QueueCumber

Not original...

Yeah - the dial seemed like a definite red flag to me, not to mention this is less than half the price of other wonky 5508s out there.

Is there anything in particular that caught your eye or is just plain out jacked?

[QueueCumber]

Originally Posted by bennyp

Yeah - the dial seemed like a definite red flag to me, not to mention this is less than half the price of other wonky 5508s out there.

Is there anything in particular that caught your eye or is just plain out jacked?

Yeah, it's not a gilt dial, but looks to be a matte dial. And, the printing on the dial is raised and white. Even if it were a replacement dial, it has a SWISS only dial instead of SWISS - T < 25, which is not normal for replacement dials I have seen, so it doesn't even look like a correct Rolex replacement dial (besides other parts of the dial looking wrong in general as well).

I'm certainly no expert, and I don't know the intricacies of replacement dials, but I do know it isn't the original dial. Whether or not Rolex had some replacement dials like this, I have no idea.

Personally, I would just run. LOL!

[linesiders]

I am not an expert on these but that is not a 13K watch. Dial looks refinished, not even service. Could be wrong but I do not think so.