Another Rolex in for a full service – I wont complain, as ive said before, they are relatively straight forward to service and dont cause many problems at all. This one happens to have a mother of pearl diamond dial – Ill need to be very careful with this.
Case back removed, giving us the first glimpse of the Rolex 3135 calibre, a 3 hand automatic calibre with date.
Movement removed from the case.
Before removing the hands I place a protective cover over both the dial and hands. Ill always do this, but with this particular one its even more important – the dial is mother of pearl. I wont go into exactly what mother of pearl is, a quick google search will reveal that, the most important thing to know if your working with it is that it is both brittle and expensive. Even more so with diamonds on it – this is one dial I definitely do not want to damage.
Hands and dial safely off, I can relax and begin work on the movement. The picture below shows you the 3135 calibre under the dial.
Rotor off and I begin to dismantle the auto device.
The 3135 calibre without the automatic device, its a lovely looking movement.
I continue on with the strip down.
Parts of the barrel bridge dismantled ready for cleaning.
Next up is the train bridge, then ill remove each of the wheels checking for any wear, damage or anything else that might cause issues with running of the watch. If I find any, they will be replaced.
This side of the mainplate is nearly stripped down.
I switch to the dial side and remove the date indicator first.
I continue on, carefully checking and removing parts.
The jewel In the picture is part of the date change, it is pretty small and very easy to lose. I keep that in my parts tray, its too small to clean in the cleaning machine. Ill manually clean it myself.
Strip down of dial side nearly complete.
Into the baskets for cleaning.
All clean and I begin rebuilding and oiling as I go. Balance jewels in first, then I refit the keyless works.
Pallet fork and escape wheel are given the epilame treatment – a solution that the parts are dipped in prior to oiling, it keeps the oil from spreading to other surfaces if the component where its not intended to be.
Continuing on with this Rolex service, the train is next to go in.
train bridge on, and it just fixes into place with all the pivots into their correct jewels so nicely. On some movements you have to jiggle things about to get everything to line up and fall into place, on a Rolex it all just slots into place easily.
Barrel back in place.
Barrel bridge back in place, this side is now almost complete.
Dial side completed.
Auto completed.
The dial and hands have been fitted and the movement is back in its case, just the rotor to be fitted and its complete.
All checked on the timing machine and looking good.
Water resistant tests and movement function tests will then be completed before the watch is returned to its rightful owner.
Thanks for reading
The Watch Professional
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