Disappointing Rolex experience with a "grey" dealer

[PcarSBA]

My wife's 178274 bought new in mid-2012 as a grey market started making odd noises every time the rotor moved. It sounded and felt like the rotor was rubbing against something. She stopped wearing it right away. Off to the RSC in Los Angeles we went. They took the watch back to check what's wrong. When the friendly lady came back she had some bad news:

While the watch was all genuine Rolex it was a Frankenstein. The serial number of the movement did not match the rest of the watch. It originally left the factory with a blue diamond dial. Apparently not only the dial but the entire movement with the current Rhodium dial was swapped before I got it (new, with stickers in place).

The supervisor said dial swaps are allowed in Europe (but not in the U.S). With the watch having a country code of 170 (you guessed it, right) the dial swap alone would have been O.K. Swapping the movement was not O.K. She said the watch has been tampered with. This made her conclude the issue with the rubbing rotor was caused by the swap rather than due to a quality issue. That sounds odd since the watch worked flawlessly for more than 2 years. And it has zero dings as my wife is really careful with it.

When asked what was wrong with the watch she said the movement needed service. Most likely the oils where dry blah blah blah and a Rolex needs service every 5 - 7 years.

I kept pressing her about it and asked how old the movement was. She said it looked all fine and proper for the vintage of the watch (no scratches on the screws, etc.) but she wouldn't know or being able to find out (BS IMHO).

I kept pushing her how she could tell the condition of the oils after only 20 minutes and how dry oil would lead to a rubbing rotor. I wanted to understand why this one failed so soon. She responded that it must have been caused by poor workmanship when the movement was swapped. Without really saying it she made me feel like a fraudster. Maybe my appearance (washed out T-shirt with my WG Sky-Dweller) didn't agree with her.

Anyhow, in summary I must say I am disappointed. My guess is the grey market dealer simply took a shortcut swapping dial and movement from another new watch to get me the configuration I asked for. It's easier and less invasive than removing hands and dial from the movement. And because of that Rolex is taking the high road and doesn't even consider that there could have been a quality issue with the movement. Rather, they argue that non-licensed work caused a problem that bubbled up to the surface after 2 years of gently wearing the watch.....

The only good news was that RSC was willing to discount the full service to 400$ because it is a relatively new watch, albeit out of warranty.