After every part of the story, I kept thinking that something horrible was going to happen. Glad to hear it didn't!

: I mentioned on here in February of last year that my friend has a
: vintage Rolex Daytona and wanted help verifying it was what I
: suspected. Several of you directed me to the Vintage Rolex
: Forum. They told me (via a deluge of emails requesting me to
: sell it) that it was indeed a Paul Newman Exotic. Frank was
: pleased to learn it was not worth $20k that he had been told by
: his jeweler (now his former jeweler) but something in the $100k
: range.

: He takes it to Mayors (Atlanta Rolex AD) for an insurance estimate.
: They tell him something like $85k. I told him they don't know,
: they aren't in the vintage space but email offers do not meet
: underwriting needs, so it was insured for that value.

: Frank sends the watch to Rolex to have the central seconds hand
: re-installed. I advised against sending it to them for fear of
: them lowering its value by polishing, reluming, etc. Thankfully,
: they did no damage. The watch was running fine.

: Then 3-4 weeks ago, Frank calls me (Frank is not a watch guy btw,
: and he's a good bit older than me - he was given the watch by
: his parents in 1970 for his college graduation gift). He said
: the watch is suddenly running 2+ hours fast, every day. He wants
: to know how to insure it for shipping back to Rolex (it's got a
: 2-year service warranty). I told him about JWLS (thanks Craig -
: ChronoDeco) but they were unresponsive. I also told him to try
: to get it looked at locally, that it was probably just
: magetized. So he took it back to Mayors who do not have a
: demagnetizer. I called Crown & Caliber and they said they'd
: look at it.

: Well, the good folks at C&C demagnetized it, replaced a faulty
: gasket and a bent spring bar and wouldn't take a penny from him.
: That's service. Now he's going to have them list it for sale! I
: am not sure what the price point will be, but I am certain Frank
: will get more than the $20k his jeweler told him.

: I am very excited for him and for myself to have helped him get
: this far. Also, I am excited for the Rolex collectors who don't
: often get the chance to buy one of these.

: FWIW, it's too small for my taste, I far prefer the size of the
: Autavia.
:
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