All About the Rolex LEC (Laser-Etched Crown)

In 2001, Rolex began putting a “laser-etched crown” at 6 o’clock on their sapphire crystals for anti-counterfeiting purposes. This tiny little laser-etched coronet (or “LEC” as collectors call it) is difficult to spot, and although counterfeiters try to fake it, it’s rarely done credibly. Rolex has used a couple of variations of the LEC to indicate things like anti-reflective coating or service replacement. We’ll go over all of that in this guide to the Rolex laser-etched crown.

How to Find the Rolex Laser-Etched Crown

The Rolex laser-etched crown is notoriously difficult to find. If you can’t see yours, don’t fret. Try shining a bright flashlight directly downward on the 6 o’clock marker and you’ll probably be able to spot it with some patience.

The Laser-Etched Crown Tells You if a Rolex Has Anti-Reflective Coating

Historically, Rolex shied away from anti-reflective coating, but they began putting it underneath their famous cyclops date magnifiers around 2005. Now they put AR on both sides of every cyclops, but they never put AR coating on the entire underside of a crystal until 2017. That’s when they quietly began adding full-underside AR to the Rolex Daytona. By 2020 Rolex had begun adding it to most of the rest of their lineup as well. You can tell if your crystal has AR coating on the underside if its LEC has an extra “oval within the oval”:

According to this well-circulated Rolex documentation about LEC’s, if your Rolex also has anti-reflective coating on the top of the crystal, there will be an additional line inside the oval inside the oval. Cellinis made from about 2020-2023 have this, as does the 1908 Perpetual, but none of the Oyster models have anti-reflective coating on the entire top surface of the crystal. This Rolex Cellini Dual Time from about 2018 has a totally plain LEC, interestingly enough:

Do All Rolexes Have the LEC?

The laser-etched crown was phased in from about 2001-2002, and yes, since then all Rolexes have had it–except for the Milgauss GV model, which has a distinctive green-tinted crystal. It probably would’ve been tough to etch a nice coronet in that.

What is an “S” Service Crystal?

Sapphire crystals are incredibly durable, but on rare occasions they do get cracked or chipped and need replacement. Rolex used to put a sideways “S” inside the little oval in the LEC to indicate it was a service replacement crystal, but they stopped doing that in 2012. Now, if you need a service replacement crystal, you’ll get one with a normal laser-etched crown like everyone else.

Does a Laser-Etched Crown Mean a Rolex is Real?

Actually, counterfeiters have been faking the Rolex LEC for decades now, and fake ones are usually too easy to see. If you’re able to easily see a laser-etched crown on a “Rolex” with your bare eyes, it’s almost certainly fake. Plus, fake LEC’s are usually blurrier and less pointillated than real ones, as we mention in our Guide to Spotting a Fake Rolex. Some fake laser-etched crowns have gotten much more credible and can appear decent in photos, but they’re usually duller.

While the real Rolex LEC can be hard to find, once you do shine a light on it, it “sparkles” a little bit in a way fakes don’t seem to (at least not yet).

That’s just about everything you should know about the Rolex laser-etched crown. Obviously it didn’t stop the fake Rolex industry in its tracks, but it did (and still does) at least create a hurdle for counterfeiters. To this day, low-quality LEC’s can be a helpful quick indicator of a fake watch. And as the fakes grow less and less obvious, I’m sure the cat-and-mouse game between Rolex and counterfeiters will continue.