Viability of Maintaining Manual Wind Movements?

[zesty_calco]

Been looking at some manual wind Rolexes; specifically a 1959 6694 with 1215 movement. In 2023 how viable is it to maintain a vintage piece like this? Are parts still available (even aftermarket ones)? Are there watchmakers still around to work on them? Is it cost prohibitive to have them serviced?

I've read that certain parts tend to wear out faster on manual wind watches. Would I be better off going with an automatic for this reason?

[Dirt]

Have you asked this question in the vintage watch forum or the watchmaking forum?

Lots and lots to unpack here and a real feast i imagine.
It depends upon the movement and availability of parts in general and whether someone is capable of making the parts which are needed.
All movements have parts that wear, with some worse than others including modern Rolex movements and especially some standout current movements
The simpler the movement the better for any chance of real success.
Either way, it will be an expensive exercise to keep the old ones running depending on the condition of the movement and whether it has been molested previously at some point in its life or not.

For my money, it would be better to go with anything that's more modern and produced in extremely large volumes comparatively speaking.
I imagine an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch would be a good place to start that's likely to be cost effective rather than a very vintage Rolex.
Please keep us informed about you intend to proceed on your journey.
Good luck

[omar-rye]

RSC quoted me around $1500 for servicing a 1965 6694 not too long ago. They mentioned that it needs to be shipped to Geneva for the service. So rest assured, at least Rolex still services them

[KZZN]

Hi,

I can't speak on the experience of owning a vintage watch, but I do have experience with the long-term use of a manual-wind Rolex. My daily wearer these days, and for many years now, has been a manual-wind Rolex Cellini which I purchased new in 2006.

In those seventeen years, I've experienced a failure of the mainspring twice. In fact, that's been the only thing that's gone wrong with the watch or ever caused it to require a service. On each occasion, I was simply winding the watch as usual in the morning, when I heard a loud "TWANG !" noise and felt a strong vibration go through the case, and that was that for the mainspring. These failures have happened roughly once a decade so far, give or take.

In both cases it was an easy fix for Rolex, and not too expensive either. Service for a manual-wind time-only movement is about as straightforward as watch movement servicing is ever going to get, and the service costs for this watch were always noticeably lower than for Datejusts or Day-Dates I'd owned in the past. Of course again this is one area where experience with vintage movements may be different.

Movement-wise, this Cellini uses the cal. 1602, which was the final variant of the cal. 1600 which Rolex introduced in the 1960s. It's a time-only manual-wind movement. It's kept good time certainly, and never given me any trouble except for the mainspring failures mentioned above.

Anyway, hope this is at least of some help !

[TuRo]

SHWR in UK do these all the time 6426/6694 easyish job, circa £300 full service.

They last as long as autos imho......crown and tube takes the wear as you unscrew/screw back everyday.....oh, and never be distracted while winding as you can if distracted overwind and ping the spring goes (not happened to me though, yet), while of course an auto has a release clutch to avoid this.

some swear by the pleasure of the routine of a daily few winds on say their Daytona Manual wind!

[Woody]

The RSC serviced my 6494 (cal 1215) in 2020. My understanding is that the various derivatives of this movement were used in the ref 6696 up until the late 1980’s. My example is extremely accurate and a pleasure to own


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[Dan S]

The manual winding movements have fewer parts than the automatics, so it's hard for me to understand why you think they might wear out faster. In fact, in my experience, various parts in the auto-winding mechanism are the ones most likely to need replacement.