I took the watch to a Rolex Service Center (RSC) on Sept. 18th.  They said they would have an estimate for servicing the watch for me the next day.  They will not authenticate a watch, but they will not service a watch that is not all original either (they make you replace the parts with genuine Rolex).

They called me the next day and said they did not have the service history for the watch, so would need to contact Geneva (I don’t know why).

They did mention a few problems that they spotted already though.

1) The band had cracks (I never noticed them) so they would no longer be willing/able to polish it

2) The inner bezel (made of aluminum I think) was cracked (again, I never saw that).

They said they would contact me on October 6th once they heard back from Geneva.

They ended up calling me on October 7th, but still don’t have the information I really want.  Now they are saying the watch will be sent to some place where the movement and inside of the watch will be inspected…  They are expecting that process to be completed by October 21st.

I will do another post after I hear back from them towards the end of the month.

In mid 2014 she had a used Rolex Submariner 168000 for sale.  I was interested in the watch so we struck a deal and I made payment via a bank transfer.

The watch looked good to me when it arrived, but I’m not an experienced Rolex guy.

After a couple of months it came to my attention that the dial on the watch is not original.

I referenced my copy of Rolex Submariner Story to see if there was a known dial variation for the 168000 that might match.  Turns out there are two dial variations for the 168000 but neither of them even come close to matching the dial on the watch.

I reached out to a couple of Rolex experts to get their opinion.  Neither of them think the dial is original.  One of the experts I consulted immediately spotted problems with the dial, without me saying anything.

Is it possible that a Rolex dealer with more than 16 years experience could have missed the fake dial?

I contacted Nitza to see if she was aware the watch dial was not original when sold.    She insists to this day that the dial is original.

I took these enlarged photos of the watch dial and sent them to her.  I pointed out that the font is not the type Rolex uses and the lettering is not level – still, she insists the dial is original.

At this point I assume she knew the watch dial is not original.

So far I have not had the watch opened, with a bit of luck it will only be the dial that is not correct.  Worst case the inside will be powered by Timex

The markings on bracelet show the correct model for the watch, but the date code on indicates it is not original to the watch either (it is much older than the watch).

I will do a followup post to this once I have the watch taken apart for servicing and let you know what we find inside.

Hopefully this posting helps someone else, Nitza Lerner is not a trust worthy dealer and may be selling watches that are party fake or made up of various watch parts.  That type of watch is often called a Franken and the value is seriously impacted.

She has refused to take the watch back, nor offered any dial replacement or any restitution for selling a watch with a fake dial.  Her actual reply was essentially that there is nothing I can do about it and he will not take the watch back.  Since I paid with a wire transfer I have no credit card to charge back, and she knows it.

Hopefully this posting will help save someone before laying out thousands on a fake watch.