Timeline:
21/8 - Order placed. Payment complete.
25/8 - QC received. Reviewed and approved.
29/8 - Order dispatched
6/9 - Order arrived in UK.
7/9 - Watch arrived. Watch was great however experienced a few issues. Details below...
Watch was extremely well packaged and looked great. I dont have a gen daytona to compare this against but next to my gen sub, it looks only a few levels below in finishing under a loupe. On the wrist, you wouldnt be able to tell.
However, the watch stopped running a few hours later even though I was wearing it. I thought no problem and did the usual mechanical watch flick becoming more aggressive each time to try to wind the watch but nothing. I then manually wound the watch and nothing. Before the issue I had impatiently removed the stickers (which covered the whole watch as if it came from Rolex factory) as the watch was running however I was now concerned I could no longer return. I also had tried to resize bracelet but 2 of the screw in pins were seized.
I contacted Steve @TheOneWatches on Monday to ask for advice and he recommended I find a local watchsmith to diagnose this issue. I have 2 nearby but one refused to inspect a replica and the other was closed. Reading through RWI and other forums, I discovered that the 126500 clean often comes poorly lubricated and a more agressive hit on the side should free the rotor which can stick. I could actually hear the rotor moving so thought this might not work but tried in desperation. After the 3rd hit (which increased in speed and force) into my palm, the watch sprang into life and the rotor spun 10x times. Reminds me somewhat of kickstarting an old vintage bike. The watch is now running well and keeping time...hopefully this continues.
I also removed the 3 attached links from the bracelet and left in some WD40 for a few hours. The pins were still seized. I then used a lighter to heat up each end of the pin and was presented by some black smoke which was the loctite (or whatever they use to seal the screw) burn off. After some backwards and forwards gently not trying to damage the head any further, I was able to remove and resize.
Apologies for lots of information above, but hopefully this might help anyone else with a 126500 Daytona that has this issue. Thanks to Steve for offering to help and being supportive of this issue also...including offering to pay for the watchsmith inspection.
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