FWIW, I have been informed by a good friend who works full time as a watchmaker for an AD for a bunch of the major brands(Rolex, Omega, etc) up in NJ that Rolex is going to stop supplying parts for several older movements-the 1500 series and the 3035 and related-by the end of 2021.
What that means is that he can no longer accept any watches for repair with those movements after the end of the year because he is required to give a 2 year warranty on all repairs.
After the end of this year, watches with those movements will have to go to Rolex for service, where presumably they will continue servicing them indefinitely.
As a practical matter, that's first of all a lot more expensive-probably 2-3x the cost of a watchmaker affiliated with an AD. Second, it's REALLY going to be an issue for a lot of the high dollar collectible Subs and the like.
To the second point, as it pertains directly to me, my own ref. 16013 has a diamond dial that as far as I know it didn't come from Rolex with. I've always been a bit neutral toward it, but if I send it to Rolex for service, they will return it to me EXACTLY as it left the factory-meaning I'll get charged for the "correct" dial, and they won't return my diamond dial to me or give me any credit for it. To that end, I'm going to have mine serviced before the end of the year, then source a genuine dial of the correct style from Ebay(they run $75-100) and have him install it when he services it. When it comes time for it to go to Rolex, I'll probably still get dinged for a refinish or at least a relume, but it won't be as bad as buying a new dial.
On old Subs and the like-many bring big money if they're "all original"-i.e. have degraded radium paint or just have a nicely toned dial or otherwise with "patina." Rolex won't honor the instructions to "leave the dial alone"-it will come back looking like it's brand new, which of course kills the value.
It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years with regard to these older, very collectible(and expensive) references.
As it is, the basic Rolex Perpetual movement in any form-whether time only, date, or day-date-is a good sturdy movement with nothing terribly exotic. Any reasonably competent watchmaker can take one apart, clean it, oil it, put it back together, and have it running again. That's assuming you don't need parts, though, which will now be only available on the secondary market.
Screw down crowns in general, and in particular crowns on Oyster cases, are considered a wear items and are supposed to be replaced at every service. It's also typical to replace the mainspring as part of the service-newer alloys are considered to be better than old carbon steel springs(I have ones from the 50s that have been fine and allowed the watch to rate well within specs with nothing but a quick solvent bath and regrease), but at the same time wristwatch mainsprings are a bit more sensitive to this than the larger PW springs I usually deal with. The 3035 has a brass bushing in the pillar plate that is known to wear with time and is also typically replaced as part of the service-although admittedly depending on how particular the customer is my inclination would be to just jewel the bushing(which is how it should have been done in the first place) and never look at it again. Still, though, it will make many folks anxious about having their watches serviced.
