This is an extremely common question that keeps popping up on the forums, and it’s quite specific to Rolex watches simply because they carry so much monetary value with them. It’s very tempting to want to engrave your Rolex watch, I’ve thought about it myself many times. After all, when you buy a once in a lifetime watch like a sports model Rolex you generally have the thought of potentially passing the watch down to your children as a heirloom. Let’s take a look below at some good reasons to go ahead with an engraving, and some reasons why you should avoid it.
Heirloom Family Watch
Starting with the most prevalent reason and desire to engrave a Rolex watch – handing it down to your kids or a family member as a heirloom piece. This is probably the one best reason to move ahead with engraving your Rolex, as it’s a watch never to be sold, but to honor your families name through multiple generations.
Not only is it nice to wear a family heirloom with your family name engraved on it, but you can also include some kind of memo or family ethos which will be passed down and remembered for decades and maybe if you’re lucky even centuries. The fact that you engraved the watch also signifies to your relatives that the watch is to be cherished within the family and not sold, as a reminder to them for when you’re not around to remind them yourself.
The best and most common location to place the engraving would be on the caseback of the watch for a couple reasons. Most obviously because it provides ample room to display text, and it’s not visible when the watch is on wrist. Another less common reason is to allow the ability to swap out the caseback easily with an original non-engraved caseback.
Temporary Personal Watch
If you’ve purchased a Rolex for your own enjoyment with no plans to ever pass it down, and you have thoughts of potentially selling it in the future if perhaps your require the funds or you want to trade to a different model – it’s best not to engraved the watch at all.
Not engraving the watch allows maximum value retention and lowers complications when it comes to selling the watch. The watch will still be yours, and it will still build its own story on your wrist as you wear it with natural micro-scratches, and patina. There’s really no need in this case to have your name or some type of slogan engraved onto – unless you have a burning desire to really make it unique. If you did decide to engrave it anyways it would be best to revert the engraving with a new caseback if you decided to sell.
Gifting a Rolex
Gifting a Rolex is an incredibly personal thing to do, it’s one of the most prestigeous gifts someone could receive. There’s multiple scenarios here that would warrant an engraving, and for one it make a special gift even more personalized and once again would dissuade the gift receiver from selling it.
The Rolex could potentially be gifted to a family member in which you could engrave their name. Or perhaps it’s a business gift which could be a touch less personal, engraving would not really be necessary in this case.
Sometimes a Rolex is gifted at a sports event like the 24 Hours of Daytona in which a factory engraved two tone Rolex Daytona is gifted to the winner. This is entirely different from a custom engraving as this special sports engraving is a one of a kind produced by Rolex themselves, with special watches like this often increasing in value due to their collectibility.
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