Is this just poor QC or workmanship on Rolex's part?

[mikeawesome]

Hello everyone,

So I purchased this 40mm day date about a year ago brand new from a reputable USA AD who has been an AD for many years so there's virtually no chance this is a fake right? There are a few things about it though that make me question Rolex's QC process -

1.) When I went to pick up the watch there was a small hair, maybe 1.0-1.5mm in length that I spotted on the white roman dial. I pointed this out to the sales associate and he took the watch back to their technician who removed the case and got it out

2.) If you look at the photo I attached of the clasp, you can see in the engraving of the Rolex crown that some of the lines on the left side have a black color. Depending on how the light shines on it affects how black the lines are, but that is the only part of the engraving that has a different color from the rest of the yellow gold

3.) On the back of the lug there are 3 small crown engravings and 1 engraving that says Au750. 1 of the crown engravings is immaculate and looks perfect, but the other 2 you can't really tell that it is a crown

Just some of my observations. I might be a little OCD with this, but from all the videos I've watched and people I've talked to, Rolex just doesn't make mistakes like this before the watch leaves the factory.

[Crown & Shield]

Why would you buy a new watch with a hair on the dial?

[GGGMT]

Can’t really tell the pics are bad blurry. So, this was a brand new watch with a hair in it? I would’ve walked then and there, and bought from DavidSW


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Calatrava r]

Each engraving under a lug is different. None are repeated. The engravings have changed over the years and our experts here can tell you what each means and when it was in use. They used to put the same four engravings again on the clasp. My DD seems to have all four in both places with just a cursory glance.

[brandrea]

Welcome to the forum Mike.

Who is the AD?

[TunaTuna]

This is pretty disturbing

[mikeawesome]

edit - posted more info below.

[EEpro]

All normal.

Rolex is a marvel of modern marketing and mass production of accurate movements and well designed bracelets.

They are peers to this class of watches. Nothing more.

[mikeawesome]

Thank you for the replies. The hair or piece of lint on the dial was only 1-1.5mm in length but should have been caught at the factory or by the AD. I definitely wasn't happy about it but after waiting 2+ years to get the call on a 40mm DD with white roman dial I wasn't about to turn it down because who knows if/when I would ever get another call on it (this was with zero purchase history at this AD also). They offered me a 40mm DD with champaign baguette dial about 2 weeks prior and I turned it down because if I'm going to spend that much money on a watch I want it to be 100% exactly as I want.

If you all really want to know who the AD is send me a PM and I'll tell you. I don't want to publicly name them here as I don't think they knowingly did anything wrong and don't want to cause damage to their business.

I have some higher quality photos of the clasp and lug but it won't let me post links to them here because I have <10 posts. When I uploaded directly to the forum it made me shink the file size down which makes them blurrier and more difficult to view.
Calatrava r's response about each engraving under a lug being different is good to hear, makes me feel a bit at ease.

[mikeawesome]

Thinking through this more, I think I know how the hair/lint on the dial didn't get spotted by the factory or AD. I went back through the text messages on my phone and my AD called me on Monday, February 20th at 11:49 and sent me a photo of the watch.

The time on the watch said Thursday the 11th at 5:58 and there is absolutely no hair visible in the photo. When I went to the AD to pick it up he set the correct time for me and that was when I noticed the small hair which was being hidden underneath the minute hand in the original photo he sent.

So I think this was probably just an extremely rare occurrence of how something like this was able to slip through the cracks. I still think Rolex should have spotted it at the factory because they should have rotated the crown to fully spin the hands around the dial which would have allowed them to see it, but if the AD never adjusted the time after they took the watch out of the box then there's no way they could have known the hair was there.

I also looked at many photos of different lugs online and saw exactly what Calatrava r said - each lug is different and matches with my watch (one is a crown, one is a pentagon, one is an octagon).

There still is that slight bit of discoloration on the left side of the engraving on the clasp in the photo I posted but that is very minor. I think I saw something similar on a few other DDs I looked at online.

[Michael1968]

Welcome

[Pepperjack]

In regards to a small piece of lint on the dial, this is something I have removed from brand new watches multiple times. My memory may be faulty, but I think every single time it has been a gold case. These cases are a bit more hollow on the inside than a steel case is. My hypothesis is that because those cases are hollow, lint has more of an opportunity to remain undiscovered prior to casing up the movement. Still, it's always a little disappointing when a new sale winds up on my bench, especially for something as noticable as that.

[fsprow]

Rolex is a very nice, solid, accurate mass produced watch.