How we authenticate a Rolex: the Maison Swiss 12-point protocol

Ask most sellers how they know a watch is genuine and you will hear adjectives. Ask a professional and you should hear a procedure. This is ours — the 12-point protocol every watch must survive before Maison Swiss offers it or buys it. We publish it in full for a simple reason: a client who knows what rigour looks like is our best customer.

1. The provenance interview

Authentication begins before the loupe comes out. Where has the watch been? One owner or five? Serviced where, and when? The story must be coherent, and the paperwork must corroborate it. Inconsistency here does not condemn a watch — but it raises the bar for everything that follows.

2. Reference and serial cross-check

The reference number, the serial, and the papers must agree — with each other and with the production record. A dial configuration that did not exist in that production year, a serial range that does not match the card: these are the quiet tells that catch more bad watches than any single physical test.

3. Case geometry

Rolex cases leave the factory with defined bevels and precise transitions between brushed and polished surfaces. Over-polishing rounds what should be crisp and thins what should be substantial. We examine lug profiles and chamfers against known-correct examples — a case can lose its history in a careless service, and value goes with it.

4. The dial under magnification

Print quality is where counterfeits and “improved” watches most often betray themselves: font weight, spacing, the sharpness of the coronet, the surface of the lacquer. Lume plots must match the reference's period and age plausibly. Redialled watches — genuine watches with refinished dials — matter as much to value as fakes do.

5. Hands and date furniture

The correct handset for the reference and period, and on date models, the correct date-wheel font and its alignment within the window. Small parts are where honest service replacements accumulate — each one noted, because each one affects value.

6. Opening the movement

There is no complete authentication through a closed caseback. Inside: the correct calibre for the reference, with the finishing, engraving and — where Rolex applies them — movement serials in order. Counterfeit movements have improved; cloned engravings have not survived a watchmaker's eye.

7. Movement condition and timing

Genuine is not the same as good. A watchmaker assesses service history from the state of the movement itself, then we measure timekeeping across positions. A watch that passes authentication but fails performance gets serviced before it is ever offered — or it is not offered.

8. Bracelet and clasp

Correct bracelet and end links for the reference and year, clasp codes in agreement, and stretch measured honestly. Bracelets are routinely swapped in the trade; an incorrect bracelet is a price conversation, and we prefer to have it before you buy rather than after.

9. Crystal, cyclops and seals

The cyclops magnification and placement, the crystal's etchings where the period calls for them, and the gaskets that make an Oyster an Oyster. Where appropriate to the watch we test water-resistance — a dive watch that cannot dive is a repair, not an offer.

10. Papers under scrutiny

Guarantee cards have their own forensics: print method, layout, material, and on current-generation cards, electronic verification. Papers are the most-faked component of the modern watch trade because they add the most value. We treat them as evidence, not decoration.

11. The market history check

Before any offer, the serial is checked against stolen-watch registers and industry databases. This protects the seller, the next owner, and us. There are no exceptions to this step — none.

12. The second opinion

No watch enters the collection on one person's judgment. A second examiner repeats the physical points blind, and disagreement is resolved the only safe way: the watch is declined. We decline more watches than we accept, and we consider that the whole point.

Trust is not a claim; it is a procedure.

Every watch in the collection has passed all twelve points, and carries the 24-month Maison Swiss guarantee alongside a lifetime guarantee of authenticity. Selling? The same protocol is how we can value your watch the same day — and stand behind the figure.