How to open an old Rolex ladies watch?

[AlexanderB]

Hi, 

I'd like to open an old RLX ladies watch of my wife. The back has a tab on one side.

I wonder if this tab is to lift the back. I tried carefully, but I am just not sure, if this is indeed the way to open the case.

Any comments appreciated.

Cheers

Alexander

[oldhippy]

There's no sign of the usual way a Rolex would open by means of a screw on back. So I would put a case knife under the tab and try to open it. I'm sure that's the way unless there is a place around the case that looks as if a case knife opener can be inserted.  

[ro63rto]

It might be the photo but that tab over the bracelet doesn't look like it is for lifting the caseback off.

It looks like its half way up the chamfered edge.

Can you take a better angled photo?

[AlexanderB]

Thank you @oldhippy and @ro63rto. I will take another picture. There is indeed no place, where a case knife opener can be inserted.

Has anyone seen a solution like this before?

Thank you

Cheers Alexander

[oldhippy]

I have but I know it wasn't a Rolex, and I can't tell you what it was because it was a long time ago. 

The bracelet looked very similar the sort where the case and bracelet are all together I remember it was white gold.   

[ro63rto]

That "tab" isn't a push release button is it? To release the case from the bracelet? ??

[jdm]

29 minutes ago, ro63rto said:

That "tab" isn't a push release button is it? To release the case from the bracelet? ??

I think the bracelet is micro-welded to the case. The case should be opened with the usual method of razor blade, knife and patience.

[anilv]

While the tab may look like a pry point, be careful when prying and try to avoid pressure on the bracelet. They are usually soldered, not welded, and the bond is weaker.

Anil

[AlexanderB]

Thank you @anilv. I am aware of that. Didn't find the time for more photos. Pretty busy these days.

Alexander

[AlexanderB]

Thank you all for your support. After finding the time to look deeper into it, I came to the conclusion that prying it off with at the tab, would be the right way to do it. And it was!

I did it very carefully. First I tried using a pry wood. But that did not work out. I then used the case opening knife and that worked perfectly.

Here are a couple of pictures of the movement, a Rolex 1600 with 19 jewels.

The watch shows a beat error of 0.8ms on the timegrapher. Since the stud seems to be fixed I have no idea of how to fix that. 

I of course don't want mess around with it, since this is a watch that will be worn for a night and not on a daily basis.

But just out of curiosity: how could the beat error eliminated on a watch like this?

Cheers Alexander

[jdm]

Rotating the HS on the balance staff. However, 0,8 is still a small, acceptable error. To judge the overall health of the movement you should consider amplitude and the pattern regularity, and positional rate variance.

Edited June 18, 2016 by jdm