Rolex Datejust Perpetual.....no longer perpetual!!
Discussion
30 year old ten of which has been spent in a draw as it stopped working. Got it out about a year ago as i'd deduced the auto wind rotor was at fault. So wound it up manually (didn't realise before that it took so many "winds" to get going and was always afraid of over-winding it which apparently you can't!).
Happy enough to re-wind every day and wear it again until the other day I felt something odd during winding - looked at it and it was going......backwards
I had been planning on taking the back off to tackle the auto wind myself as Youtube Vids suggest it's doable :bash: but this new problem has probably scuppered that!
Any ideas what has broken now? Happy (ish) to pay a reputable Indie but not North of £500 - failing that it's back in the draw until I can justify OR prices.
Thanks in advance
Happy enough to re-wind every day and wear it again until the other day I felt something odd during winding - looked at it and it was going......backwards
I had been planning on taking the back off to tackle the auto wind myself as Youtube Vids suggest it's doable :bash: but this new problem has probably scuppered that!
Any ideas what has broken now? Happy (ish) to pay a reputable Indie but not North of £500 - failing that it's back in the draw until I can justify OR prices.
Thanks in advance
Duncan is fully Rolex-accredited and would do a brilliant job at slightly cheaper than Rolex themselves, who would be circa £575-£625 from memory for a basic service & polishing (excluding some extra parts) without anything else.
At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
Going backwards is probably a broken mainspring, or maybe something in the winding has unscrewed/ broken/ died. If you watch, it won't keep doing it for very long! It's dead and needs a service.
TBH, if the auto work was faulty ten years ago and now it won't work manually I'd say you've got your money's worth even out of a full price manufacturers service. If nothing else it will be a good test of whether or not using something to death is a false economy if everything's ground to dust inside.
TBH, if the auto work was faulty ten years ago and now it won't work manually I'd say you've got your money's worth even out of a full price manufacturers service. If nothing else it will be a good test of whether or not using something to death is a false economy if everything's ground to dust inside.
UnclePat said:
Duncan is fully Rolex-accredited and would do a brilliant job at slightly cheaper than Rolex themselves, who would be circa £575-£625 from memory for a basic service & polishing (excluding some extra parts) without anything else.
At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
Can the tiny parts of a watch really cause that much damage short term?!At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
Badda said:
UnclePat said:
Duncan is fully Rolex-accredited and would do a brilliant job at slightly cheaper than Rolex themselves, who would be circa £575-£625 from memory for a basic service & polishing (excluding some extra parts) without anything else.
At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
Can the tiny parts of a watch really cause that much damage short term?!At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
The rotor weight flies around it's axle, which slowly eats itself if the lubrication dries. The dust from the rotor weight gets trapped in the lubricant and hastens the deterioration of the rotor axle. When it's really bad you can feel the rotor rocking in the case. When it's really really bad, you can hear it scraping the caseback and movement plates as it no longer has a nice perpendicular shaft running though it- when this happens it starts to scrape the nickel plating from the movement as the heavy weight scrapes along the movement, or as it itself rubs the caseback. Scarred for life and producing more dust, which is ground back into the movement, eventually wearing the plating through to the brass.
Some of this dust will make it's way into the reversers, which ratchet to allow force transmission from the weight to the main spring, but not the other way. They also allow you to wind the mainspring without needing to wind the big heavy rotor around. If you find that your watch "whirrs" when winding, or at least will feels gritty this is often the cause of that symptom.
The rotor axle also sits in the centre of the watch, above the central seconds wheel, which rotates once a minute. So steel dust from the disintegrating rotor falls into the pivot of the centre seconds wheel, which isn't under massive pressure, but is rotating 1400-odd times a day in it's own grinding paste, so the pivot can end up shot, too.
Those are the fairly straight forward (if you have parts) parts that go, but really once one pivot is spewing dust out into the movement, everything can get damaged fairly quickly and it's really time to get it serviced. It'd be like running the same oil when you've discovered the air filter has been letting in sand.
Edited by glazbagun on Tuesday 5th February 12:28
dickymint said:
Update: Watch accepted by TheWatchGuy - in the post tomorrow.
I've never used Christian's services before, but I've long been a fan of his fascinating website, and hugely admire both his abilities and his willingness to share his knowledge & resources with others. I'm sure he'll do an absolutely A1 job, with excellent photos & feedback (even if not Rolex-accredited, to my knowledge - but then, the cost will be less too).glazbagun said:
Badda said:
UnclePat said:
Duncan is fully Rolex-accredited and would do a brilliant job at slightly cheaper than Rolex themselves, who would be circa £575-£625 from memory for a basic service & polishing (excluding some extra parts) without anything else.
At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
Can the tiny parts of a watch really cause that much damage short term?!At this stage your rotor will likely be flopping around and scratching all hell out of the movement bridges & case back, and/or the reversers are knackered, and the whole thing will be bone-dry of lubrication and chewing itself, creating an abrasive metallic paste and further adding to the wear.
The rotor weight flies around it's axle, which slowly eats itself if the lubrication dries. The dust from the rotor weight gets trapped in the lubricant and hastens the deterioration of the rotor axle. When it's really bad you can feel the rotor rocking in the case. When it's really really bad, you can hear it scraping the caseback and movement plates as it no longer has a nice perpendicular shaft running though it- when this happens it starts to scrape the nickel plating from the movement as the heavy weight scrapes along the movement, or as it itself rubs the caseback. Scarred for life and producing more dust, which is ground back into the movement, eventually wearing the plating through to the brass.
Some of this dust will make it's way into the reversers, which ratchet to allow force transmission from the weight to the main spring, but not the other way. They also allow you to wind the mainspring without needing to wind the big heavy rotor around. If you find that your watch "whirrs" when winding, or at least will feels gritty this is often the cause of that symptom.
The rotor axle also sits in the centre of the watch, above the central seconds wheel, which rotates once a minute. So steel dust from the disintegrating rotor falls into the pivot of the centre seconds wheel, which isn't under massive pressure, but is rotating 1400-odd times a day in it's own grinding paste, so the pivot can end up shot, too.
Those are the fairly straight forward (if you have parts) parts that go, but really once one pivot is spewing dust out into the movement, everything can get damaged fairly quickly and it's really time to get it serviced. It'd be like running the same oil when you've discovered the air filter has been letting in sand.
Edited by glazbagun on Tuesday 5th February 12:28
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