Thunderbird 1625 comes alive after 40 years

[TropicalRolex]

Hi, this is my first post here, after reading and learning a lot from this community. I'm 45, and recently, after I found a good story in the The New Yorker, I started to read a lot about watches, an interest that I had lost since my childhood. Then I remember that when my father died, 25 years ago, my mother gave me a gold Rolex he always kept in his safe. I started to remember, playing as a little kid, opening the safe and staring at the watch (It didn't have a bracelet or strap). It was my grandfather's watch (he died when I was 5), but my father never it because he thought it didn't work. I kept the watch in a box, trough two marriages and a number of houses.

I live in the south of Mexico, so I never bother to get it to the Rolex Service in the capital, I knew the service would be like buying a knew, expensive watch, and It was not on my priorities as a young man. In 2007, during the worst floods in the region in 50 years, the watch survived because the top drawer of the closet was slightly above 2 meters high (the water reached that level on my house), but the humidity in the air definitely affected it. I kept the watch all this years just as a memory of my father and his father.

Then, a month ago, after reading a lot about watches and buying an inexpensive Seiko, I remembered the Rolex. I went to the box, took it, and went online to search for the model and everything. Then, after an hour or so, suddenly the seconds hand started sweeping. I couldn't believe it. I already knew that it was a Thunderbird 1625, circa 1961, I screw out the crown, set the hour and day, and basically stare at it for the rest of the afternoon.



After close examination I think the watch was serviced by some non qualified technician when my grandfather lived. Maybe he bought it second hand, he was never that wealthy (of course, in the 60s a Rolex wasn't so much of a luxury like now, and the mexican economy was way better). The case back has marks, it looks like it was opened with the incorrect tool. The bezel was glued to the case body. It has some signs of heavy corrosion in some parts of the case. The dial is heavily stained, the borders are gone, and there's a strange detritus accumulated in some parts, specially at ten o'clock (I guess is the tritium that fall from the hour hand and the border of the dial). The crystal has a lot of scratches. I cleaned it with a toothbrush and neutral soap, then the crystal went foggy, but cleaned itself after a few minutes.







It was painful to look at the watch with a loupe. But after a month it has lost only one minute against my computer. The movement is running like brand new, after 40 years of seating still, suffering the high humidity of the region (80% must of the year). I can't understand how, but it's amazing. That sweeping seconds hand moves me back to the brief time when two beloved persons were alive, and when you put it under a good light is still kind of beautiful, like a greek urn.



I doubt Rolex has the spare parts to service this watch, and if they do I doubt I can pay it. So I think I am going to look for a good old watchmaker to see what can I do to keep the watch alive.

I just wanted to share the story and to ask a few question to the many experts here:

-I don't know why the dial doesn't say "DATEJUST" under "OYSTER PERPETUAL", but I very much doubt the watch is a fake. Any ideas?

- Do you think it would be a good idea to service it now?

- What do you think that happened to the dial? What's that detritus?

- I read 1625 dials are very hard to get, is there any other dial model that will fit?

Thanks very much for reading and for your answers.