Rolex, a watch company not necessarily known for releasing any information that could help navigate the murky world of their often cobbled-together vintage watches, is now officially restoring made-up Frankenstein watches with altered dials featuring non-original prints and even more shocking, accepting watches with fake case engravings. While Rolex should be helping clean up a chaotic vintage market riddled with scams and scammers, they are in fact helping to destroy it further. What sounds like a collector’s nightmare is unfortunately the sad reality. And a costly one too, the amounts charged for the restoration service are outrageous! There was a time when Rolex refused to service watches that had been altered, even to the extent of marking them with ‘XXX’, the feared ‘kiss of death’. Lots of problems also in Rolex’s Certified Pre-Owned program, where they not only offer watches with non-period-correct parts, basically Frankenstein watches of their own making, but watches with entirely fake dials. I have pointed out these issues to Rolex and offered my help, but received no reply.

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Sotheby’s Lot 86, Rolex Daytona ‘Paul Newman’, Ref. 6240, 1439142

The present watch sold at Sotheby’s Geneva on May 11, 2025, fetching a whooping 241,300 Swiss Francs incl. premium. Described as a “6240 Paul Newman unlike any other seen until today” and “a most exciting discovery”, this watch has indeed raised some eyebrows.

Auction link: Lot 86, Rolex Daytona ‘Paul Newman’, Ref. 6240, 1439142 (sothebys.com)

Bearing case number 1439142, it was made in 1966. However, the Rolex ‘Atelier de Restauration’ booklet issued in October 2024 and included with the watch states wrongly that the watch was manufactured in 1968. The case numbers in early 1968 had reached the 1.8 million mark, so 1439142 was clearly not made in 1968. For a company CNC-machining its products within tolerances of one hundredth of a millimetre, being off by two years about its own products is very concerning, especially considering that in the foreword of the above mentioned booklet, Rolex claims “an unrivalled reputation for quality and expertise”.

Anybody who knows a thing or two about these watches can immediately tell that the dial is wrong, terribly wrong. For the uninitiated, Paul Newman dials had not yet been introduced when this watch left the factory. The present dial is not only not period-correct, but it is actually from a later reference, namely Ref. 6263 Paul Newman Panda Mk1 from the early 1970s. As if this was not already bad enough, the dial is no longer original but desecrated with an obviously fake ‘Daytona’ print over the subdial at 6 o’clock. This type of dial did not feature a ‘Daytona’ print, as shown in the picture below, possibly due to a dispute over the trademark ‘Daytona’ which had been registered by Heuer in 1966. It is absolutely mind-boggling how the experts at Rolex could have overlooked these easily spotted flaws.

The pictures provided on Sotheby’s website are of extremely low quality, not only in terms of resolution but also style. In this day and age, auction houses ought to do better. The following comparison of the fake ‘Daytona’ print (center) was only possible thanks to a high resolution image taken by a concerned collector at the official viewing. As you can see, original ‘Daytona’ prints from the era found on Ref. 6262/6264 watches looked completely different.

The style of the fake ‘Daytona’ print is more akin to later so-called ‘Big Red’ dials, but as the comparison below shows, it is still totally off.

This ‘Daytona’ print is 100% not original Rolex and added later by a third party for whatever reason. According to the service rules that were in force in 2002, a watch with a dial altered in this way, in addition to the dial not being original to the watch model, would have had to be rejected by Rolex service centers and marked with XXX, the much dreaded ‘kiss of death’:

“Requested attention refused by Rolex, because:
watch altered: by adding non-original parts, composit of parts of various models and/or calibers, caliber does not match the model number [Frankenstein watch], Oyster case has been mechanically modified (e.g. by studding case lugs)”

Have the rules changed? It would be good if Rolex could comment on this.

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Thoughts

Since my first encounter with Rolex, I have a soft spot for the brand, so it saddens me to have to publish articles like this. I wish these stories, yes plural, could be kept from the public eye, but I cannot see any efforts from Rolex to ameliorate the situation. It is actually getting worse. It is as if the great success the brand is experiencing has made them blind and deaf. The sad reality is that having gone through the authentication and restoration service of the Rolex ‘Atelier de Restauration’ does not guarantee that a watch is not fake or cobbled-together. If for no other reason, I am bringing this up to protect individuals from losing vast amounts of their hard-earned money.

In April 2023, I learned that the Rolex ‘Atelier de Restauration’ was accepting questionable watches for restoration. After I publicly called out a Rolex Oyster Cosmograph Daytona Ref. 6265 with fake engravings offered at auction shown in the picture below, the auction house sent me a Rolex ‘Atelier de Restauration’ estimate issued for the watch to prove it was legit since Rolex had accepted it.

These engravings do not match any of the known typefaces used for vintage Cosmograph Daytona watches.

The thing is, aside from having obvious fake engravings, a perfect watch featuring the same case number but with a different dial, bezel, and case has been recorded in my database since 2016. A restoration estimate is issued after careful examination at Rolex headquarters in Geneva, where the watch is kept for several days. The document describes the condition of a watch in detail, even with pictures. The cost for the 6265 with fake engravings was an exorbitant 17,000 Swiss Francs, just to polish the case and service the movement, as the dial was to remain untouched. Should the customer decline the restoration, the price of the estimate alone is CHF 2,000. Sure, an estimate is not a guarantee of authenticity, as Rolex clearly states in their document, but as we have learned, neither is the fact that the Rolex ‘Atelier de Restauration’ restored a watch. At the time of writing, I have documented a dozen similar cases. One can literally feel a lack of love and passion on Rolex’s part. For most employees, it is probably just a nine-to-five job, unlike some of us who live and breathe vintage watches. This whole thing has also great implications for the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned programme (CPO), especially for older watches where it is doubtful whether the experts at Rolex have the necessary skill set. In August 2023, I discovered a Rolex Sea-Dweller with a totally fake dial offered by a famous Rolex retailer in Zurich under Rolex Certified Pre-Owned.

The next image shows a comparison between the Rolex CPO dial (left) and a proper Rolex ‘Double Red’ Sea-Dweller Mk4 (right). All graphics are off.

Shocked to hear this, the Zurich dealer removed the watch from their website. They told me the watch had been serviced and certified by Rolex Geneva. If we look at the watches currently available at Bucherer, from the 1980s for instance, there are several Submariner Ref. 16800 with service dial. They cost exactly the same as watches with original tritium dials, but there is no information whatsoever about the service dial. Or a 1989 Daytona Ref. 16528 with the correct 200 bezel but an undisclosed service dial. Newcomers wanting to enter the world of vintage in a safe way by buying from Rolex Certified Pre-Owned could end up having a rude awakening.

As mentioned in the introduction, I have offered Rolex my help, not once but several times since I first learned about these issues. My friend and longstanding watch dealer of 35 years, Tom Bolt, a.k.a. Watchguru (Instagram: @watchguru_), who had a excellent relationship with Rolex – so much so that Rolex UK asked him to replace a vintage watch they had lost – wrote to them on our behalf to offer our assistance. This effort was ignored as well. I reached out again shortly after the Sotheby’s auction, but there was no answer. In a last-ditch effort, I sent them this article for comment. There was no reaction either, not even an acknowledgment of receipt, which is considered a basic act of courtesy and respect in Switzerland. I am, therefore, left with no other option but to make this public for the sake of the watch-collecting world. For a company with countless secrets and literal closets full of skeletons, they sure do not seem to care much.

Thank you for your interest.

Disclaimer: All information herein are my own personal views and opinions. I do not accept any responsability for any potential loss suffered due to my said opinions.