A warranty card is the plastic card Rolex supplies when a watch is first sold. Collectors call it and the older paper guarantees ‘papers’, the record of a watch’s warranty and service history. It matters because it supports the claim that a watch is genuine, and it raises the resale price.
How have Rolex papers changed?
Until 2006, Rolex papers were real paper documents that looked like a guarantee certificate. The watch’s serial number was punched into the paper as perforated digits. In 2006 Rolex replaced the paper document with a plastic warranty card. That first card gave two years of cover. In 2015 Rolex brought in a five-year warranty. In 2020 it released a new card that is mostly green. Each current card has a built-in chip. Hold it near a phone and it opens a secure section of the Rolex website.
What should you look for on Rolex papers?
On older guarantees, the paper itself helps. Hold genuine Rolex guarantee paper up to the light and a watermark appears. It shows a crown and the Rolex name. This watermark helps expose fakes. On a plastic card, turn it over. The back has room for the owner’s name and address, and for the date the watch was bought.
Not to be confused with
A service guarantee card is a separate thing. A certified Rolex service centre can issue one once it has authenticated the watch. It is not the original warranty card. Rolex’s terms say it will never issue a replacement guarantee card, so an original that is lost cannot be replaced. That does not stop a watch being looked after. A genuine Rolex can be serviced without its original papers.
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