I recently bought a couple of NOS 116 crystals from a watchmaker that retired in the early 90s. It seemed that older crystals were being readily sold on the VRM, so I bought a couple to fit on my current watches.

Well, my current watchmaker installed one of the older 116's on my 1655, and gave me grief for paying more for the older crystal than he charges for a new replacement from Rolex.

Should older crystals demand a price premium and why?

Here are pics of the packaging of the installed crystal. Is the "79" on the back of the packaging related to the year 1979, or is the crystal older than that?

Thanks.

Your old crystal shown is a service replacement and it's the same exact shape as today new replacement. But an older 115 which has a different shape that's interchangeable to a 116 worth a premium. On the other hand, a dome 38 domed crystal also interchangeable to a 115/116 without the date bubble worth a high premium.