145.012 Restoration

Back in March I was the only bidder on a Speedmaster listed as a 105.012. It came with a 19mm flat link bracelet which I sold as soon as it arrived. After the sale the watch head ended up being just under $3500. Not bad for a 321 speedy but nearly everything about it was off. The crown, pushers, hour and minutes hands and bezel were clearly incorrect and the lume was pretty much gone from the dial, but the watch kind of ran so I was happy.

Once I had it in hand, I discovered it was a 145.012 which meant the pushers were at least correct. This began the long journey to bring it back to perfection or at least approaching it.

TM Watch Co was going to do the refinishing and mechanical work but I wanted the dial to look perfect and I wanted to make sure the lume was kept tritium so I sent the dial and hands to the Alchemist Relumer. Before I sent the watch out, I got a correct original crown, a replica DON bezel and display caseback both from Spiralwinder and finally, a flat link bracelet from the 50th anniversary moonwatch.

Tanner got the dial and hands off and sent off to the UK and started working on the case and movement. That is when things went south.

The dial got to Heathrow in no time but then all of a sudden stopped. A week goes by, two weeks, and then three weeks. Once it hit a month with no movement I began to worry. At two months I begin to despair calling the carrier, customs and whoever else I can reach. No one knows where it is. At around the three month mark it shows up in Chicago for some reason. I’m relieved and just want it back at that point, but it soon ends up back at Heathrow. Again a week goes by until I find out it cleared and was on its way to James.

James made quick work of it and got it back to Tanner within 2 weeks. Another month went by until I finally was able to wear the finished product. All in all, I am extremely happy. At the end of it all it totaled around $6500. Not a steal by any means, but I think it was well worth it. Thanks to Tanner and James and everyone who calmed my nerves as I waited for the dial to get to the UK.

Here is the before:


And here is what it looks like now:

The edges are pretty crisp. Definitely better than when I sent it off. I think the harsh lighting of the before photos make them look sharper than they really were. I wish I would have taken my own photos before sending it off.

It had been refinished before from what I could tell. I’ll have to stack it against a new one but, in person it looks and feels pretty close to other speedys I’ve owned.

Perhaps you are right. In person they seem pretty sharp. I’ll try and post a shot of it clean and with better lighting.

looks great!
That dial, wow - James is a wizard

Yeah, James is doing bits, really nice work. Years ago he also worked on reluming dials from not that expensive watches. I asked him to relume a dial from my Sturmanski 31659 and he wants to do it, but onfortunately he became too expensive to do these kind of rework. For the high-end rework, he is the best i have seen so far.

Ive been considering sending the dial from my newly acquired 145.022-68T in to him for a relume. Nice to see an example of the work im considering.