ROLIE, Outstanding Watchsmith, Great Friend

[Frazzle1]

Received this amazing Space-Dweller yesterday but have only just had chance to open it up today and boy was I in for a surprise!

Having put up a WTB last month for a watch I've been longing for, for sometime, I received a private message from MartinJogs of 31st January explaining that he had one that he had bought from Solk around a year ago. He had bought the watch with a power reserve issue and had never got around to fixing it. He was contemplating selling it as is, and, well, I bit his arm off! My only issue, as I'm sure you can all recall was that one had to leave the box to afford to buy this beauty. Martin held the watch for me in the short period it took for me to sell my Bert and the deal was done with Martin.

Knowing it needed a service and /or a repair I touched base with a member here that I'd read several glowing reviews about - Rolie! A watchsmith based in the UK.

As soon as I touched based with him I could immediately tell that Rolie was one of the good guys, an honest bloke who simply loved watches and loved working on them and more importantly knew them inside out. Unlike many online watchsmiths, Rolie preferred discuss things over the phone rather than e-mail or PM. This in itself was refreshing and made the repair process far more personal, quick and smooth!

Martin agreed to send the watch directly to Rolie, which he did on 2nd February and Rolie received it up on 4th Feb. Rolie opened the parcel and got straight to work on the watch that evening! We spoke on the phone and via what's app and he quickly established the fault. The watch was clogged up with oil everywhere, he disassembled the movement, cleaned it up and then reassembled it. As he did so, he found that that a jewel in the autobridge was elongated and both reverser wheels were fudged. He replaced the lot and the watch sprung into life, winding like an absolute dream! Rolie even took the top off the barrel and cleaned of the excess oil with Rodico from the mainspring.

Martin had mentioned a couple of dust specs under the Plexi, so Rolie cleaned this off for me too but as he took the movement out, the dial was loose and dropped straight off the movement. Not a problem for Rolie though, reaffixed this for me and lined up the dial to perfection, and at no extra cost!

So essentially Rolie fixed my SD in less than a few hours and he would have sent it back to me the following day but wanted to make sure the dial was affixed properly and movement keeping good time, so he kept it over the weekend and sent it out to me on 9th February.

Now comes the staggering part! Over the course of a week we had got chatting on the phone for hours at a time, not just about the repair but also chewing the fat about watches in general. We'd also been chatting quite a bit on what's app. During these conversations I'd made mention of Rolex watch boxes and how I'd love to get one for the Space Dweller. Well as you can imagine I was absolutely bowled over today when I opened my parcel to find my space dweller sitting pretty in a stunning Rolex Leather watch box with hang tag, paperwork and leather wallet! Now this was just beyond bloody generous of Rolie!

I cannot recommend Rolie enough for his professionalism, skill, turn around times, cost and that fact his just a bloody nice bloke to chat to and deal with. AND in the short time I've known him (a week!) I'd go as far to say that I class him now as a friend!

So thank you Martin for a GREAT watch and thanks Rolie for a fantastic repair, a bloody generous gift and a new friendship!

Here's the photos folks;

Specs on the watch are:

JMB custom Bezel

Rep DJ case with drilled lugholes and gen spec spring bars

Clark 21 plexi

Ingod44 dial and hands (now out of stock)

gen crown and tube

Gen 2824-2 with some clone parts on it.

Donerix 20mm leather strap

Gen movement with clone parts in silver.

This is what poor Rolie had to work with!

The case back with more oil on it than a spotty teenagers face!

Watch when it arrived from Martin

Watch after the repair

[droptopman]

Cool story, very nice piece.

Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

[Nightwatch]

Great write-up and nice story. Congrats & enjoy, looks like a fine piece with a vintage strap to go along

[Frazzle1]

Cool story, very nice piece.

Sent from my droptop using telepathy.

Thank DT been keen to get one of these for a while and now with a clean bill of health from Rolie it should keep ticking for a good few years yet!

Great write-up and nice story. Congrats & enjoy, looks like a fine piece with a vintage strap to go along

The strap is super soft, just need to get a nice silver Rolex buckle for it now to finish it off. Thanks

[Mendota Explorer]

Great review. He sounds like a really good guy. I wish he were CONUS.

[MadeiraG]

Hi I know this is a very old thread I’m hoping you can put me in touch with rollie as I have a brand new sea dweller arrived from China and its broken . Sent it back and they sent me a new one and that has also stopped working , cost me over £500 and would like it fixed

thank you so much