32xx movement problem poll and data thread

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by RogerOP

I’ve had to take my 3230 in for the second time as I have no ability to wind the watch.

My DJ41 is completely fine, but the OP41 has been nothing but issues for me.

Sorry to hear about your problems with the 3230 (caliber introduced in 2020). What were all your OP41 issues?

[RogerOP]

Originally Posted by saxo3

Sorry to hear about your problems with the 3230 (caliber introduced in 2020). What were all your OP41 issues?

It's the same issue as the first time. I can't wind the watch!

I don't always wear it so it runs out of power probably once or twice a month. I pop the crown out, twist it clock-wise 10,20,40+ times and nothing happens. Only charges with movement from my wrist.

It's gone in now for about 6 weeks I was told. Last time RSC told me "there's nothing wrong with it". So I recorded a video of no power being generated by winding it. I'll wait to see what they say this time (hopefully a chance to upgrade to a GMT )

[waterman1]

My SD43 from 5/2017 MK1, was acting erratic and generally slowing down. To better describe it would lose 2 seconds within couple of hours after winding fully, then sort of level off to maybe -4 seconds per/24hrs, but then after two days of some wear and still perhaps half-way wound would lose -12sec to -20 sec per 24 hour period. It was odd enough to make me think I was losing my mind). Sent off to RSC in NY. This is the second time it has been sent in to RSC for the slowing issue. First time was 8/2019. Add to this my DSSD also with 3235 has been sent in twice as well.
Here where it gets interesting; RSC says "strong impact has affected internal movement - not covered by warranty. However they are picking up the cost as act of good faith. They also say I have a cracked crystal and damaged crown which they are charging me for. Cost $46 crown. $158 crystal.
I was relieved they were picking up the cost and honestly very surprised at the low cost of replacing those two parts, however I did not see any damage to the watch and was told it was not visible with naked eye. On the phone I asked very politely about the oddity of having two watches with the same movement sent back twice each for same issue. I asked if they had ever heard of perhaps an issue with this movement or if they had seen similar problems. Response was "not at all...no issue with this movement at all".
Here are my takeaways; I had a 16600 and beat that SD to hell and never had a service and no issues. I have a 116600 SD4k- had since first yr they were made and also have worn hard and no issues. The 126600 that is at RSC now was barely worn since getting back from RSC after the first go-around. Have never dropped it or knocked it and I am aware of this since not wearing the watch much. I am grateful Rolex is taking care of the movement issue and also pleased the cost of crown and crystal are not in the hundreds each as I thought they would be. But I am losing confidence in the Rolex watches of today being the workhorses they have built their pedigree on. I have to think Rolex knows about the issue - wish they would just be forthcoming and admit they are looking for permanent fix. Perhaps they have the fix now. I will know in 8 weeks. I certainly hope so. Sorry so long and hope there is some information in here for the forum.

[George58]

Originally Posted by waterman1

My SD43 from 5/2017 MK1, was acting erratic and generally slowing down. To better describe it would lose 2 seconds within couple of hours after winding fully, then sort of level off to maybe -4 seconds per/24hrs, but then after two days of some wear and still perhaps half-way wound would lose -12sec to -20 sec per 24 hour period. It was odd enough to make me think I was losing my mind). Sent off to RSC in NY. This is the second time it has been sent in to RSC for the slowing issue. First time was 8/2019. Add to this my DSSD also with 3235 has been sent in twice as well.
Here where it gets interesting; RSC says "strong impact has affected internal movement - not covered by warranty. However they are picking up the cost as act of good faith. They also say I have a cracked crystal and damaged crown which they are charging me for. Cost $46 crown. $158 crystal.
I was relieved they were picking up the cost and honestly very surprised at the low cost of replacing those two parts, however I did not see any damage to the watch and was told it was not visible with naked eye. On the phone I asked very politely about the oddity of having two watches with the same movement sent back twice each for same issue. I asked if they had ever heard of perhaps an issue with this movement or if they had seen similar problems. Response was "not at all...no issue with this movement at all".
Here are my takeaways; I had a 16600 and beat that SD to hell and never had a service and no issues. I have a 116600 SD4k- had since first yr they were made and also have worn hard and no issues. The 126600 that is at RSC now was barely worn since getting back from RSC after the first go-around. Have never dropped it or knocked it and I am aware of this since not wearing the watch much. I am grateful Rolex is taking care of the movement issue and also pleased the cost of crown and crystal are not in the hundreds each as I thought they would be. But I am losing confidence in the Rolex watches of today being the workhorses they have built their pedigree on. I have to think Rolex knows about the issue - wish they would just be forthcoming and admit they are looking for permanent fix. Perhaps they have the fix now. I will know in 8 weeks. I certainly hope so. Sorry so long and hope there is some information in here for the forum.

sir you have more patients than me dealing with this issue

[amanbra]

Originally Posted by RogerOP

It's the same issue as the first time. I can't wind the watch!

I don't always wear it so it runs out of power probably once or twice a month. I pop the crown out, twist it clock-wise 10,20,40+ times and nothing happens. Only charges with movement from my wrist.

It's gone in now for about 6 weeks I was told. Last time RSC told me "there's nothing wrong with it". So I recorded a video of no power being generated by winding it. I'll wait to see what they say this time (hopefully a chance to upgrade to a GMT )

How many turns did you give it? Rolexes for some reason need a fair fee winds before it starts again which did different from my other watches. No idea why.


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[TswaneNguni]

Originally Posted by waterman1

I had a 16600 and beat that SD to hell and never had a service and no issues. I have a 116600 SD4k- had since first yr they were made and also have worn hard and no issues.

3135

[samson66]

My MK1 SD43 is back from RSC for the 32xx movement issue. So far nearly spot on. No explanation and no paperwork at all from Rolex. They just returned the watch and added a varry pouch and that was it. Hopefully this did the trick. Next service not planned for six more years when I'll get its first "full service."

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[nickrb]

Just found this thread.

Last November 2021 I noticed my 126711CHNR was losing > 20 seconds per day. I think the problem built up gradually. Purchased it from local AD in Knoxville in May 2019.

Took it for service to AD, they sent it to Dallas (I believe). Got it back mid March. Now running at COSC.

I do believe I experienced whatever this mystery issue is.

Glad to have my favorite watch back. Hope it doesn't happen again!

[Mike79]

I am very curious when the Rolex bubble will burst ( I mean prices ) ?
More and more people find out about caliber 32xx problems. 1,5 years ago I visited the shop with exclusive watches ( Vacheron Constantin, Lange & Söhne, IWC, Zenith, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai ) and told about my problems with cal. 32xx. They were surprised, never heard. And maybe two months ago I visited another shop with watches ( the same company, different location) and employees know this problem. One of them told me even, that Rolex with cal, 32xx is only an ornament not a proper watch. A lot of people complains.

Prices of Rolex ( gray market offcours ) are still very high, but maybe it just seem to me, that stop to grow up.

When the bubble burst, some gray market dealers will have a huge problem with selling watches with defective caliber.

[Mike79]

Originally Posted by nickrb

Just found this thread.

Glad to have my favorite watch back. Hope it doesn't happen again!

It will be repating unfortunatly.

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by Mike79

I am very curious when the Rolex bubble will burst ( I mean prices ) ?
More and more people find out about caliber 32xx problems. 1,5 years ago I visited the shop with exclusive watches ( Vacheron Constantin, Lange & Söhne, IWC, Zenith, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai ) and told about my problems with cal. 32xx. They were surprised, never heard. And maybe two months ago I visited another shop with watches ( the same company, different location) and employees know this problem. One of them told me even, that Rolex with cal, 32xx is only an ornament not a proper watch. A lot of people complains.

Prices of Rolex ( gray market offcours ) are still very high, but maybe it just seem to me, that stop to grow up.

When the bubble burst, some gray market dealers will have a huge problem with selling watches with defective caliber.

Michael, interesting description .... BUT in this thread we do not intend to speculate about Rolex bubble burst, prices going up or down, gray market ... but try to collect some 32xx data.

Do you own a 32xx watch? If yes, what's your experience with timekeeping?

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by Mike79

I am very curious when the Rolex bubble will burst ( I mean prices ) ?
More and more people find out about caliber 32xx problems. 1,5 years ago I visited the shop with exclusive watches ( Vacheron Constantin, Lange & Söhne, IWC, Zenith, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai ) and told about my problems with cal. 32xx. They were surprised, never heard. And maybe two months ago I visited another shop with watches ( the same company, different location) and employees know this problem. One of them told me even, that Rolex with cal, 32xx is only an ornament not a proper watch. A lot of people complains.

Prices of Rolex ( gray market offcours ) are still very high, but maybe it just seem to me, that stop to grow up.

When the bubble burst, some gray market dealers will have a huge problem with selling watches with defective caliber.

Very interesting and thanks for sharing
It's threads like this which help to highlight the issue and hopefully prevent poor unsuspecting people from falling into a trap with the prospective purchase of a watch which may turn out to be a poor timekeeper or even a liability.
Unless it's resolved conclusively by Rolex, it must surely negatively reflect on the brand somehow

[Mike79]

Originally Posted by saxo3

Michael, interesting description .... BUT in this thread we do not intend to speculate about Rolex bubble burst, prices going up or down, gray market ... but try to collect some 32xx data.

Do you own a 32xx watch? If yes, what's your experience with timekeeping?

I had DJ 41 ( bought 2018 , AD, not gray market ), sold already. Mine Rolex had exactly the same problem. After second repair in RSC, I found out about this problems with cal 32xx and decided to sell.
I found out only because of this Forum. AD ensured me, that is no complains for watches with cal. 32xx.
U are right, we ( me ) shouldn't to speculate about Rolex bubble burst, but I am angry, that Rolex still cheats his customers.
People pays overprice for a dream watch and get a junk. Rolex knows a problem and still plays dumb.

People still pay overprice, Rolex is unavailable ( only gray market ), but more and more people find out about this. I am just curious how it will finish ?

BTW I intend to buy a Rolex, cal. 31xx or older, but not now. I am patiently waiting for a lower prices. It will come ? No idea.

[Mike79]

Originally Posted by Dirt

Very interesting and thanks for sharing
It's threads like this which help to highlight the issue and hopefully prevent poor unsuspecting people from falling into a trap with the prospective purchase of a watch which may turn out to be a poor timekeeper or even a liability.
Unless it's resolved conclusively by Rolex, it must surely negatively reflect on the brand somehow

Exactly, fully agree. But resolved of this problem still doesn't come, so long. It seems like Rolex has no idea to fix it ( only mine opinion ).

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by Dirt

Unless it's resolved conclusively by Rolex, it must surely negatively reflect on the brand somehow

I think the 32xx issues have not even a tiny negative impact on the brand recognition and the quantity of watch demands.

Originally Posted by Mike79

It seems like Rolex has no idea to fix it ( only mine opinion ).

This is extremely unlikely.

[Mystro]

Originally Posted by Mike79

It will be repating unfortunatly.

Not necessarily at all.
I’ve had almost a dozen 32 series movements and everyone has been an outstanding time keeper within less than two seconds a day to 2 seconds a month and I am methodical in keeping records on every watch. Everyone has also passed their mainspring test comfortably. Look at the time keeping of the “holy trinity” brands and see what is considered “tolerable” with those.

[Mystro]

Originally Posted by Mike79

I am very curious when the Rolex bubble will burst ( I mean prices ) ?
More and more people find out about caliber 32xx problems. 1,5 years ago I visited the shop with exclusive watches ( Vacheron Constantin, Lange & Söhne, IWC, Zenith, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai ) and told about my problems with cal. 32xx. They were surprised, never heard. And maybe two months ago I visited another shop with watches ( the same company, different location) and employees know this problem. One of them told me even, that Rolex with cal, 32xx is only an ornament not a proper watch. A lot of people complains.

Prices of Rolex ( gray market offcours ) are still very high, but maybe it just seem to me, that stop to grow up.

When the bubble burst, some gray market dealers will have a huge problem with selling watches with defective caliber.

That’s called “we need to sell a our other brands by trash talking the only brand that sells itself” sales strategy.

That said, it’s not surprising they haven’t heard of any Rolex movement issues. This forum is a concentration of owners and not a direct reflection of the mainstream Rolex buyers/owners so % of owners with reporting issues is very high here. Rolex owners come here for solutions to their issues. The original poll shows there is some issues out there but not as mainstream and widespread considering how long the 32 series has been produced. Equate this to why the a dealers Porsche Service Dept is hearing nothing but issues with customer cars. People go there for that reason.

[amanbra]

For what it’s worth my DJ post 2nd service and my op post rsc visit not on a timing issue are rock solid. The op36 is well over one year now. They don’t all go bad.

Also my last four watches have been non 32xx now and it’s just so much nicer not worrying about this stuff and just enjoy the watch.

I do feel Rolex have a time bomb on their hands here. Might surface in 3-5 years time when people start moving their “investments” around.


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[Mike79]

Originally Posted by Mystro

That’s called “we need to sell a our other brands by trash talking the only brand that sells itself” sales strategy.

That said, it’s not surprising they haven’t heard of any Rolex movement issues. This forum is a concentration of owners and not a direct reflection of the mainstream Rolex buyers/owners so % of owners with reporting issues is very high here. Rolex owners come here for solutions to their issues. The original poll shows there is some issues out there but not as mainstream and widespread considering how long the 32 series has been produced. Equate this to why the a dealers Porsche Service Dept is hearing nothing but issues with customer cars. People go there for that reason.

I am just curious how many people which voted the original poll wears his Rolex every day. This problem appears only if U wear a watch everyday and after 1 or 1,5 year. If U have few watches or more and wear it for a few days each, U never notice, that Yours Rolex slows down.
Many Rolex's owners don't wear their watches, just collect or invest.

I have visited last weeks few sellers from a gray market to find a new watch ( no Rolex ). During trying on when the sellers suggest me Rolex and I told him about problems with cal. 32xx, they confirmed. One of the gray market sellers, told me even, that this new movement have a few problems not only slowing down and loose amplitude and all 32xx movement are defective.
I haven't asked about details. But this seller told me also that all Rolex still disappears very quickly.

[Mike79]

I still think, that older Rolex are great, especially cal. 31xx.

[Kevin of Larchmont]

I’ve been wearing my Exp1 36mm every day for a week. It’s lost exactly one second. I bought it new about six months ago.

FWIW.

[Driver8]

Interesting how this issue still polarises members like no other.

Opinions are always driven by personal experience, and where some claim to have owned tens of these movements with no issues at all, others (like myself, and two of my friends) have each owned a single 32xx movement that went on to develop the very same problem within one to two years.

Either way I find it interesting that this thread is now over a year old with almost 1000 responses to the poll (at the time of writing), and it's still sitting at around 25% experiencing timekeeping issues.

Are people on forums more likely to join to complain about issues? Yes they are. But are people on forums also more likely to actually notice issues than Joe Public? Probably also yes. (PS - If it was any brand other than Rolex, I'd say definitely yes, but I know we have members here who freely admit to not even bothering to set the time on their watches when they wear them!).

All things considered I'd imagine the true global percentage to be less than our 25%, but whatever it is, the fact is that the 32xx was released in early 2015, so that's over 7 years ago now.... and issues are still being reported.... and still (apparently) no permanent fix.

[Mike79]

@saxo3
Originally Posted by Mike79 View Post
It seems like Rolex has no idea to fix it ( only mine opinion ).

QUOTE: ,,This is extremely unlikely''.

Two years ago I would agree, right now I really doubt it.

[Gab27]

Originally Posted by Driver8

Interesting how this issue still polarises members like no other.

Opinions are always driven by personal experience, and where some claim to have owned tens of these movements with no issues at all, others (like myself, and two of my friends) have each owned a single 32xx movement that went on to develop the very same problem within one to two years.

Either way I find it interesting that this thread is now over a year old with almost 1000 responses to the poll (at the time of writing), and it's still sitting at around 25% experiencing timekeeping issues.

Are people on forums more likely to join to complain about issues? Yes they are. But are people on forums also more likely to actually notice issues than Joe Public? Probably also yes. (PS - If it was any brand other than Rolex, I'd say definitely yes, but I know we have members here who freely admit to not even bothering to set the time on their watches when they wear them!).

All things considered I'd imagine the true global percentage to be less than our 25%, but whatever it is, the fact is that the 32xx was released in early 2015, so that's over 7 years ago now.... and issues are still being reported.... and still (apparently) no permanent fix.

To me, it's not that surprising how strong of a reaction this sort of thing elicits. It happens with Apple products all of the time.

Similar to Rolex, Apple doesn't really release many service figures on anything (as doing so serves them no real benefit), and when there is something that appears to be systematic, generally nonprobability samples like these are the extent of available data.

As you have noted, there are potential arguments to be made that the true number of watches having issues could be lower or could be higher than what this poll shows, and potentially valid reasons to justify either direction. I, too, am inclined to think the real percentage is likely lower than what this poll shows, but we simply cannot say that for certain with the inherently limited amount of data we have.

[JMGoodnight369]

So we’ve all gathered that most of the problems lie in the 3235 movements. Has anyone done any research or comparisons with the 3230? In following this thread I haven’t seen too many mentions of that caliber when it comes to issues. I have a 2022 124060 and although it is accurate (-1.9), it is the slowest out of the box of any of the Rolex I’ve had before. All most of my precious watches have ran fast so it makes me wonder if they are regulated slow for a reason? Maybe to mitigate premature damage of some sort. Maybe we can have a sub thread for each of the 32xx calibers to compare them to see if the trend goes across the board or mostly lay with the 3235

[amanbra]

Originally Posted by JMGoodnight369

So we’ve all gathered that most of the problems lie in the 3235 movements. Has anyone done any research or comparisons with the 3230? In following this thread I haven’t seen too many mentions of that caliber when it comes to issues. I have a 2022 124060 and although it is accurate (-1.9), it is the slowest out of the box of any of the Rolex I’ve had before. All most of my precious watches have ran fast so it makes me wonder if they are regulated slow for a reason? Maybe to mitigate premature damage of some sort. Maybe we can have a sub thread for each of the 32xx calibers to compare them to see if the trend goes across the board or mostly lay with the 3235

you'll feel this because it's the most common of the 32xx movements and they've been out for ages, as a result the most amount of reports. the 3230 is relatively new and in far fewer models. 3255 are much more lower prod numbers and yeah the GMTs far fewer than DJs sub dates etc.

[PekWatchGuy]

"One of them told me even, that Rolex with cal, 32xx is only an ornament not a proper watch. A lot of people complains." True so true.

[saxo3]

Originally Posted by Mike79

I am just curious how many people which voted the original poll wears his Rolex every day. This problem appears only if U wear a watch everyday and after 1 or 1,5 year. If U have few watches or more and wear it for a few days each, U never notice, that Yours Rolex slows down.

Did you read the entire thread?
Your claim is factually wrong.

The proof is in my post #2165.
Compare with my 3135 data (post #2166).

[Mike79]

Originally Posted by saxo3

Did you read the entire thread?
Your claim is factually wrong.

The proof is in my post #2165.
Compare with my 3135 data (post #2166).

I just read Yours post ( #2165 and #2166 ). That's ok. Even if mine claim is factually wrong, Rolex still can not permanently fix problems with 32xx.

[Andad]

You may not be wrong Mike.

Can two new Rolex watches with a timing issue be linked to the longer term issue we are discussing?

Is this enough data to make a decision?