I recently serviced this Rolex 5552 calibre 1530 from 1964 for its original owner. It has been his daily watch for 55 years. His request was to fully service it but not change anything cosmetically. The watch will be inherited one day by his son. A testament to Rolex quality of the era and the owner’s understanding of the importance of quality watch servicing, this watch will likely outlive all of us. While a watch of this era worn daily will show the scratches of past servicing, I would say the customer chose excellent watchmakers in the past. In this post I will emphasize a few example aspects of how we treat a customer’s watch worn by them for 55 years with respect and professionalism. Despite the best in cleaning infrastructure, dirt can accumulate in the pinion leaves and other areas of small parts and stay there after the cleaning machine. In some cases you must clean individual parts by hand in addition to machine cleaning. You disassemble all cap jewels and assure they are fully cleaned and properly oiled— a frequently skipped step by shortcutters, these jewels take time when done properly as oiling them and handling them including the small springs that hold them is tedious. You fully support all parts put under pressure where possible (hands, wheels) and assure the movement is level when reassembling parts attached with friction. As discussed in other posts you fully and completely disassemble the movement including the automatic mechanism— frequently this mechanism is not disassembled by short-cutters and they slop oil into the module causing it to run poorly and increasing wear. After servicing, the watch is highly accurate again (+7 seconds averaged across all positions) with high amplitude and good beat error, water resistant, and ready to return once again to the owner’s wrist as his daily companion.
