Watch Service: Rolex Oyster Perpetual. Cal 2230.

Another Rolex, but this time a more modern 2230 calibre. As a ladies watch, I quite like it. Simple design and timeless, like all Rolex watches – its what they do so well. Other than growing a bit in size to appeal to the more modern fashion of larger watches, on the whole, they havent actually changed that much in design for the last few decades.

Case back removed, we get the first view of the ladies Rolex 2230 calibre. As with all Rolex movements, its an attractive movement and has the unmistakeable red reversing wheels.

Movement removed from the case. Its a great looking dial, gold indices and yellow gold hands. An interesting fact – on their modern watches, all Rolex hour indices and hands are made of gold (steel watches are white gold), this has the advantage of not corroding and will keep it looking better for longer.

The hands are readied for removal, Ive placed a protective layer over the dial and hands here to prevent any damage being done.

Once the dial and hands have been removed we can see the keyless and motion works. The 2230 is a non date model so not an awful lot to remove here, the 2235 is the date version of this calibre.

Ive now removed the rotor and put into the movement holder so I can begin to strip it down.

The automatic device is first.

A shot of the movement with the automatic device removed. For all intents and purposes, its basically a reduced size 3130, the gents calibre.

First off I remove the barrel bridge.

Then I strip down the barrel bridge itself before continuing with the rest of the movement.

Train bridge removed.

I continue on.

Pallet bridge next to be removed prior to removal of the pallets.

I switch back and start removing the keyless works.

Just the shock settings left to be removed.

All parts placed into the basket before being loaded into the cleaning machine.

40 minutes later and im ready to start re building and oiling the movement. Starting with the shock settings and keyless.

Keyless works complete and oiled.

Crown wheel refitted to the barrel bridge.

Pallets and escape wheel back in and I continue on. Both parts have been treated with epilame – a solution that keeps oil from spilling over to other surfaces, so the oil stays on the surface its meant for. This is particularly useful for a watch escapement, where oiling is critical and and we want the oil to remain on the contact surfaces of both the pallet stones and escape wheel. This is standard practice on all modern watch calibres now, and as far as im aware, all brands use it.

Continuing on, barrel bridge and train bridge both back in place.

Movement back up and running, not too much more to go.

Automatic device back together and oiled.

With the movement complete I can refit the dial and hands.

Last check on the timing machine before closing the watch up.

Next up, as always, it will be tested to ensure its water resistant before moving onto test for 5 days to fully check the functionality of the watch.

I never tire of servicing a Rolex watch, from a watchmakers point of view they are a dream to work on, they go together so nicely and everything just slots into place perfectly.

Thanks again for reading.

The Watch Professional