Rolex bracelet too long: saw it off?

[rdschreiner]

Please, all of you who are conjecturing on this. I have personal knowledge of a similar situation with my wife's Lady Datejust. She has very petite wrists and Rolex Jubilee bracelets have more than 2 or 3 permanent links on each side. On hers, the six o'clock side has seven permanent links and two had to be removed in order to center the deployment clasp. In the case of the OP, if all the removable links are taken out, there is no choice but to remove permanent links.

 

[jellyv]

^You are correct. On a man's Rolex bracelet it is sometimes necessary to remove a permanent link for fitting a small woman's wrist, and this is considered a serious alteration that is hard to restore later on, unlike removing the other links.

 

[bucha]

So I saw the Rolex specialist in the city and he said right away that as a watch specialist, there was nothing he could do with my watch as all the normally removable links had been removed. He added that at this point, I needed to see a goldsmith in order to remove some permanent links, and confirmed what the jeweller previously told me.

I consulted many jewellers who agreed with this point, but refused to work on the watch as it is a Rolex and they said that they didn't feel comfortable altering such a watch. So I came back to the first jeweler, who cut the links and finished the work in less than 2 hours.

Here is the final result. I am very pleased with this:

 

[etk123]

Glad to hear that it all worked out, congrats on your beautiful, properly fitting watch!

 

[bucha]

I forgot: once again, thanks everyone for your recommendations.

 

[TC1]

Looks fabulous!!. Congrats on a great fitting solution.

 

[Mixedbag]

No, the jeweler is absolutely right, with the exception of unfortunate description of what he intends to do. If all of the removable links have been removed and the bracelet is too large, the only adjustment that is possible is to remove some of the permanent links. On a Jubilee bracelet like this, it will require pulling the links apart, which will make them unusable. This is not an uncommon adjustment, especially in this case where the OP is trying to size a watch that was originally intended for men's wrist sizes.

An Authorized Dealer with a watchmaker on staff, a Rolex Service Center, or two good sets of locking pliers (vicegrips) can remove a permanent link. A watchmaker offered to do this with my GMTII bracelet, but he indicated that once a link is removed, that it cannot be replaced (unless by an RSC). The watchmaker also indicated that a bracelet with a permanent link removed does not devalue the watch in any way.

rdscchreiner is 100% correct.