Sending Your Rolex For Factory Service Redux:
A Warranty Service Testimonial
By: John B. Holbrook, II
July 8th, 2009

Back in 2005, I had occasion to send my Sea-Dweller to Rolex USA in NYC for some warranty service work. I did a small article and testimonial about the experience which you can read about by click here. Fast forward to June 2009, and I once again had need of some warranty service work from Rolex USA – this time on my Pepsi bezel GMT Master II. Like my SD, it had been running slow out of the box – typically by 5 or 6 seconds a day, which is outside COSC Chronometer specifications which allow for a variance of anywhere between +6 and -4 seconds per day. I waited a bit over a year to send it in for regulation service under warranty as Rolex typically will do a light polish of the case and bracelet when you send it in for service. Having sent the watch in, and received it back, I did note that some things have changed in the last 4 plus years since I had sent a watch to Rolex USA. So I’m doing a sort of update to my previous article to highlight some of the changes, as well as to document another testimonial of the service received.

The first thing I did when I was ready to send in my GMT Master II was to contact Rolex USA. Since the Beverley Hills Service was closed by Rolex earlier this year, there are now only two authorized service centers in the US – Dallas, TX and New York, NY. Being in Ohio, I called the New York location at (212) 758-7700 to let them know I wanted to send my watch in for warranty service, and find out if anything had changed from the last time I sent my watch in. As it turns out, nothing had really changed – you just need to send your watch via insured US Registered Mail, along with a letter detailing the service required, and a photocopy of your warranty. When you call, Rolex will offer to send you a shipping “kit” for you to send your watch to them. This isn’t really anything more than a small box which you assemble, some tissue paper, and the standard brown security tape the US Post Office uses for registered mail. Since this would take extra time, I politely turned down the offer, and just used my own box. Many people ask if they should go through their local Authorized Dealer to get service on their watches. Generally, I advise against this because it will A)take longer than if you do it yourself, and B)could very well be more expensive since the Authorized Dealer’s involved may want a fee or extra charge for their services. But if you’re not in a hurry, and don’t mind paying for the convenience, this option might be better for you.

Many people think sending their watch to Rolex USA via insured Registered mail will be expensive – it isn’t. Registered US mail is about the safest way to send something, so it’s incredibly inexpensive to insure something sent via Registered mail. It only cost me $27.00 to ship the watch to Rolex. However, don’t expect the folks at the Post Office to put the brown security tape on the box for you. The tape has to be applied to every seam on the box, so that it is clear no seals have been broken on the box prior to transit. Here’s a phone camera shot of my tapped up box being weighed prior to shipment:

I strategically sent my watch to Rolex USA just days before leaving on vacation to Hawaii. I thought my being gone a week would help take my mind off being without my beloved GMT while it was away at the “Rolex spa.” Unfortunately, it took a bit longer this time for the service work to be completed – I sent the watch out on June 11th and received it back July 6th. So it was just shy of a calendar month. Considering the shipping time each way, this really wasn’t that long of a period of time, but it wasn’t the two week turnaround I received back in 2005.

Here’s the box I received back from Rolex. They almost always refer to themselves as “RUSA” on shipping documents – no need to advertise that the contents of the box is coming from Rolex:

The contents of the box differ from my last shipping experience substantially. The interior of the shipping box is almost entirely foam, which a cut out in the center for the watch itself – very secure, and an improvement in my opinion from how watches were packed and shipped back in the past.

In terms of the accessories that ship back with the watch, there have also been improvements. Here’s a photo of what was received:

I received a small folder containing the “invoice” (there was no charge for the service I received under warranty) and a booklet describing Rolex service (the same booklet you would receive packaged with a newly purchased Rolex watch). They also included a small green cloth “pouch” – it was absent of any Rolex logo markings however. Rolex USA has sent similar pouches in the past with watches they send back from service – sometimes you see them being sold by people on eBay. I’m glad they’re no longer sending the card board Rolex Service boxes like what I received in 2005, but I have seen better quality Rolex pouches than the one I received, which can be quite useful to transport your watch while traveling. The big improvement however is the microfiber cloth that was sent. It’s actually a very nice cloth for whipping down your watch – much more so than the old style, green bordered cotton cloths that used to be packaged with Rolex watches:

So how was the actual service work? As instructed, Rolex did lightly polish my case and bracelet – the watch looked as good, if not better than new. So absolutely no complaints in this regard. What really impressed me were the accuracy test results when I hooked up the watch to my Orbita Mechanical Watch Tester:

As you can see from the two photos of the LCD screen below, the watch was now running between +/- 0 seconds per day and +1 per day!! That’s nearly perfect as far as I’m concerned.