Rolex Service in Tbilisi: When You Need One and What It Involves

A Rolex is built to run for a long time between services. Not forever. How often it really needs one, what happens when it's opened, and the one situation in which we will tell you to take it somewhere other than our workshop.

Rolex makes some of the most durable mechanical watches in the world, and it builds them to go a long time between services. That durability is also why owners tend to leave them too long. A Rolex that has not been opened in fifteen years usually still runs. It is simply running on lubricants that stopped doing their job some years ago.

How often a Rolex needs a service

For watches sold since July 2015, Rolex offers a five year international guarantee, and recommends a complete service roughly every ten years. Before that, the recommended interval was considerably shorter, and older references were generally expected to be serviced more often.

Ten years is a guideline for ordinary wear, not a promise. A watch worn every day, taken swimming, or worn for sport takes more mechanical stress than one that comes out on weekends, and will usually need attention sooner. A watch that sits unworn in a drawer still ages: the oils inside a movement thin and migrate whether it runs or not.

What a full service involves

A complete service is not a clean and a battery. On a mechanical Rolex it means taking the movement apart entirely, and it usually takes the better part of a working day on the bench before testing begins.

• Complete disassembly of the movement, down to the individual components.
• Cleaning of every part in an ultrasonic bath to remove old oil and debris.
• Inspection of each component under magnification, and replacement of anything worn.
• Replacement of every gasket, at the caseback, crown and crystal. These are consumable parts and are never reused.
• Lubrication at the many individual points a movement requires, each with the correct oil or grease.
• Reassembly and regulation, measured on a timing machine across several positions.
• Water resistance testing under pressure before the watch is returned.

If you want to understand what is being worked on, our guide to reading a watch movement explains the parts in plain language.

The warranty question, answered honestly

This is the part most independent workshops would rather not say out loud.

If your Rolex is still within its five year guarantee, have it serviced within Rolex's own network. Opening the case outside authorised service ends the guarantee. That applies to every independent workshop, including ours. If you bring us a watch that is still covered, we will tell you so before anything is opened.

Outside the guarantee, the question changes. An experienced independent watchmaker is a legitimate choice for a Rolex, and what matters then is the person doing the work, the equipment they use, and whether you receive an honest diagnosis before any work is agreed.

Ask about polishing before you agree to it

Many services include polishing the case and bracelet as standard. On a Rolex that deserves a conversation first. Every polish removes metal, and repeated polishing softens the sharp edges that give the case its shape and a large part of its value on the pre-owned market.

You can ask for a service with no polishing at all, or a light refinish that preserves the edges. We explain what we recommend and why before we touch the case. For more on why edges matter, see our guide to buying a pre-owned Rolex.

Signs a Rolex is due

• A change in daily rate, especially a watch that has suddenly started gaining time. Magnetism is often the cause and is quickly fixed, as our guide to why an automatic loses time explains.
• A shorter power reserve than the watch used to have.
• A rotor you can hear or feel grinding when you tilt the watch.
• A crown or date change that feels gritty rather than smooth.
• Condensation under the crystal. Stop wearing it and bring it in; our guide to water resistance explains why.
• Around ten years since the last full service, even if nothing seems wrong.

What it costs

It depends on the reference, the complication, and what the diagnosis finds. A time only Oyster Perpetual is a different job from a Daytona chronograph or a Sky-Dweller. We do not quote a figure before we have seen the watch, because any figure given without looking would be a guess.

What we do instead is examine the watch first, free of charge, and give you a fixed price before any work begins.