Watches

Hi all,

Around six months ago I posted here for advice after I noticed a something stuck under the date window of my submariner. I wouldn't be so bothered had it not been smack bang in the middle of the date window and the magnification making it so obvious. You all suggested I send it in under warranty which I happily did. I asked my AD if I was being pedantic, but they affirmed that being a sub, it was incredibly unlikely that something had somehow worked it's way into the case. This was likely something that had happened during production and was definitely worth sending in.

Rolex actually took the issue more seriously than I expected. They requested it for full servicing rather than simply have the in house watch maker do a repair as they wanted to inspect the movement to make sure that the issue wasn't a symptom of something more significant.

The watch arrived back around six weeks later and I immediately noticed that the crown felt "heavy" when trying to wind. I didn't really think anything of it as it had obviously been serviced and passed quality inspection, I thought maybe they'd been overzealous with the amount of oil or something like that, but that's fine. I had it on my wrist less than two weeks when the date wheel became stuck at midnight. It immediately righted itself when I pulled out the crown but the watch felt "crunchy" when trying to wind and I realised that the date wheel was actually stuck and could not be changed with the crown.

I took it back to my AD who was flustered to say the least, they said they'd never once seen issue with a watch after servicing and I can believe them. It was sent back as a priority case and was back with me no more than two weeks later. I'm not sure if this service was rushed, or it really was handled as a priority, but the watch came back feeling even worse. The movement now crackled when wound and lo and behold, no less than a week later, the date wheel failed again.

So back it goes. This was a month ago and I got the call yesterday that it was ready to collect. The first thing I did was to try to wind the movement, lo and behold it's worse still and now feels like the movement is just grinding against itself. My AD wouldn't even let me leave with the watch, even before I stated my opinion they said that this was in no way acceptable and needed to be sent back.

Frustratingly, Rolex doesn't disclose anything about their servicing so we have no clue as to what the actual issue is. In fact, they refuse to give any detail at all. My AD has raised this as a complaint but I feel like I'm forever going to be plagued by this issue and really think it's time Rolex replace the watch. Could I please have some advice on what to do next? Has anyone ever had a similar situation?

TL;DR: Sent off for servicing, remove something stuck under the date window. Date wheel stuck after servicing and movement crunchy. Sent off twice more, get's worse each time. What to do.

Edit: Here's a nice video for you of the movement just after servicing. Sound up. https://streamable.com/uvyybi