Help with my first gen Rolex 5500 Explorer

[pavalov]

Couple weeks ago I got myself a nice Rolex 5500 Explorer from a seller on Chrono24. For the price I paid ($2000 without the bracelet), I was expecting it to be a redial and not a rare 5500 Explorer. Anyways, after receiving the watch I took it straight to the Rolex Service Centre for a checkup.

Turns out that Rolex thinks the 5500s never came with the Explorer dial so it should be reverted to the Air King precision dial and hands. Weird! This is not true, the 5500s did come with Explorer dials (between 1958 to 1967 according to Bob'sWatches) so I don't understand why people at Rolex shouldn't know about this.

Other than that, Rolex said the watch is genuine, needs polishing and lubrication so I take it's in pretty good shape. I asked them about the dial and hands and they said "they appear to be gen" but it's impossible to know for sure. WTH?

The serial number of the watch is from 1959. Here are the pictures:

And this is the watch featured at Bob's Watches - the logo, letter spacing, crown, marks, all looks exactly the same, so I am thinking my dial is gen and possibly the hands too.

It's a big decision for me because the dial and hands are aftermarket I am considering returning the watch to the seller. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[manners]

Looks like a fantastic watch with interesting history. Was never a fan previously but these are growing on me for what appears to be tremendous value!

Wear in good health

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[Ls2851]

Well I firmly believe $2k was a good deal. The age of the watch based on the serial number leads me to believe the Dial is Gen. The Dial looks good to me, a gen 1016 dial would not fit the same on the 5500. I just purchased one of these as a super franken all gen but Dial, Hands and movement. I'd gladly pay you the $2,000. Keep it. Add a leather strap, even the 20mm will fit or grab a gen 19mm riveted band from eBay for like $650.00


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[Ko67]

Dial looks better that the redials i have seen. Even if the dial is refinished, it is high grade work and you are at the right value point.


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[pavalov]

I've done some research and found a lot of the redials are simply using Yuki dial. Mine as well...

I've noticed that the gen dials have more spaced out logo letters, while Yuki shows a more compact logo.
So these bellow are, in my opinion, gen dials. The top left one looks refinished.

And these bellow are obivous Yuki dials. Also notice a bigger gap between the letters "PR ECISION". Still looks pretty decent but far from the original vintage looking ones above.