Submariner Crown and Stem Problem

[Neverenoughwatches]

42 minutes ago, VWatchie said:

Not quite sure what you're trying to say here John, but I don't think I ever blamed Rolex for the hype of their watches. My beef is with social media, that know that the word Rolex draws attention. Instead of covering equally or even more interesting watches, they chose Rolex to get more views and more readers. It has become a vicious circle where too many people seem to believe that Rolex is the holy grail of watches when it is far, very far from it. Anyway, I'm done trying to express my opinion. If you don't get it or understand it I can only regret it, but that's OK! 

Most of the reading I've done about Rolex suggests they created their untouchable reputation a long time ago, not exactly honestly either,somewhat economic with what is true  Mr Wilsdorf was an extremely shrewd businessman. I believe they dont need to further their reputation, exactly as you have said everybody now does it for them.

[JohnR725]

8 hours ago, VWatchie said:

social media,

Unfortunately on the message board sometimes things get confusing I sometimes get confused and my dictation software definitely gets confused so often times we have lots of confusion.

Is not just social media it's Rolex currently and possibly even Rolex policies amongst Rolex New York and Rolex Geneva. They should be identical or the same company but I believe they're actually separate companies in a way. They have different policies of how things work in the world. Like parts distribution in the US it's basically impossible to purchase new Rolex parts. Because we are not worthy of Rolex parts and the places that are worthy have to jump through a lot of hoops into a lot of crap to get their parts

then for instance we know Rolex watches are valuable because they cost money and their scarce. How do we know their scarce well if you go to the stores authorized to sell Rolex watches and I don't know if this is changed but about the time we went into lockdown everything got scarce Rolex watches got scarce. So if you wanted a Rolex watch you had the place your name on a waiting list. You had to sign paperwork promising not to sell your Rolex watch after you purchased it because you could ask he sell it for more than you paid for because somebody might want the Rolex watch he doesn't want to wait a whole year for your Rolex watch to be made. But maybe the Rolex watches are just sitting in a warehouse someplace because it looks nice on paper that you had the weight a whole year for your precious watch. So it isn't just social media it's Rolex playing games.

My favorite was when I went to my class reunion in Switzerland I believe in the mid-80s. We can pick the various factories to go visit so I went to visit Rolex because I want to  see them mass-producing high grade watches and we saw all kinds of stuff but no making a Rolex watches I was very disappointed. Of course how was I to realize they don't make Rolex watches in Geneva where the headquarters are. Then at the time of the USA there was a shortage of I believe the chronographs and we asked and the person showing us the factory showed us a whole room full of chronographs there was no shortage?

Oh and I've attached a PDF it's a section out of a much longer PDF. Something you typically don't see every day and all later versions of this yearly report conveniently are missing these pages. One of the reasons obviously Rolex is visually out there more is when you look at the chronometer certification numbers who gets more certifications that anybody else? So love or hate Rolex visually there's more of them out there because they get more certified than anyone else. Oh and of course the reason why we never see these production numbers ever again  is that we probably weren't supposed to see these in the first place. Because now we know how many watches Rolex was making at least at one particular time because I believe all of their watches are certified. I might be wrong maybe they sell something does not certified but we do get amusing numbers.

 

COSC 2015 page 12 to 14 RANN2015 Chronometer.pdf

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

then for instance we know Rolex watches are valuable because they cost money and their scarce. How do we know their scarce well if you go to the stores authorized to sell Rolex watches and I don't know if this is changed but about the time we went into lockdown everything got scarce Rolex watches got scarce. So if you wanted a Rolex watch you had the place your name on a waiting list. You had to sign paperwork promising not to sell your Rolex watch after you purchased it because you could ask he sell it for more than you paid for because somebody might want the Rolex watch he doesn't want to wait a whole year for your Rolex watch to be made. But maybe the Rolex watches are just sitting in a warehouse someplace because it looks nice on paper that you had the weight a whole year for your precious watch. So it isn't just social media it's Rolex playing games.

Just the way of the world John, its about control, enormously wealthy companies controlling what and when people can have and cannot have as and when THEY decide. Look at computers and  technology, its for sure  way more advanced than WE are led to believe, stacked high,kept in storage and on hold. But releasing it all in one go or as its developed doesn't benefit the ones that have it, so its handed out in small bite sized pieces. Then its a nice consistant high income each year for the ones that have it. The same obviously happens in the pharmaceutical industry, who knows what THEY can actually cure ? WE dont !   Its  about THEM and US or am i just a conspiracy theorists , dont even get me started on Covid.

[CYCLOPS]

Just thought I'd mention that Rolex has dis-continued parts on 1500 and I think 3000 series movements also.....

[JohnR725]

53 minutes ago, CYCLOPS said:

Just thought I'd mention that Rolex has dis-continued parts on 1500 and I think 3000 series movements also.

I'm not sure how this affects us because how exactly will we purchase these parts from Rolex anyway? There are ways of purchasing new Rolex parts but typically in the US it's very complicated. If you are outside of the US there are opportunities at least there were at one time my understanding is Rolex is trying to close the parts availability issue were basically there are no parts for anyone that Rolex hasn't blessed which is basically all of us.

[CYCLOPS]

it just means that those parts will be harder than newer models to come by......image that a family member leaves a Rolex to you that is older and needs parts to function, you might spend more time trying to track down those older parts or never find them, with newer models you at least have another option with the OEM.....

[mbwatch]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:21 PM, JohnR725 said:

Basically the way I think of Rolex is it's the Timex of high grade watches.

Ha! Okay based on reflexive properties, from now on I am going to refer to each of my vintage Timex as a Rolex of low grade watches.

[CYCLOPS]

timex did make a movement with a fancy escapement, upright pallet jewels, I think it is a 21 jewel movement.....

its great marketing, sponsorships, famous celebs etc.,  like Coke, world recognition ......I like great brands like LeCoultre among others....