This article continues my guide that talks about what things you should watch out for when physically examining a used rolex for sale. You can see part one of the guide here: buying used rolex, an examination guide part 1.
Tip #5 -A real rolex has very straight bracelet
The bracelet for rolex is an artifact of great attention as it is finely crafted. There is no room for uneven placement of the metal pieces that formed the bracelet. Use this fact to help you examine whether the used rolex is real or fake. Take the watch and hold it over a soft surface with the watch facing down. Then, look at the links in the bracelet. Make sure they are hanging nice and smooth. The bracelet is what holds the watch to your wrist and it accounts for a lot of the value of the whole watch.
Tip #6 – Real rolex has no clear back cover
One of the easiest way to spot a fake rolex is to look at the back of the watch and see if it has a clear window to allow for visibility into the watch mechanism. Although this may look awesome, it is a big give away that the used rolex is a fake. This is because rolex has yet to make a watch with a clear back cover. Hence, once you can see the inside of the watch from the back, run away as it is not the real thing.
Tip #7 – Look out solid winding stem, rather than glued on crown
For this tip, you need to look carefully at the winding stem of the watch. Focus your eyes on the part used to set the date and wind the watch on non-automatic models. A real rolex should have its crown trademark molded into the end of the stem. If you can’t spot the crown, forget the deal as it is very likely a fake. However, even if it does have the crown, you must take a good look at another important aspect: the stem from the side. The real rolex will mold the crown together with the winding stem as one piece while a fake rolex only has the crown glued onto the end of the winding stem.
Tip #8 – Check for triplock crown seals on real rolex
Most of the rolex models, like the Submariner, Sea-Dweller and Daytona, use an extra seal within the threads of the winding crown’s tube. To see this extra seal, you need to fully unscrew the winding crown. The gasket looks like a small o-ring. Many of the fake rolex do not have this extra seal. Even for those fake rolex that do, the seal is not functioning. A real rolex has been finely instrumented so if you got a rolex of which the winding stem doesn’t unscrew to set the time, or is loose after doing so, you know you’ve got a fake in your hands.
Tip #9 – A real rolex has moving holograms on its back cover
Every rolex from the factory comes with a Hologram-encoded sticker on the back of the watch. This hologram can be identified by the trademark crown sitting above the watch’s reference number. If you view these hologram stickers from different angles, you can see different appearances. This is the litmus test that most fake rolex will fail as they usually have hologram stickers that don’t change appearance.
With that, it brings me to the end of this two part guide. If you want to buy used rolex, this is a handy guide to help spot the difference between a real and a fake rolex.