145.022 STRAIGHT WRITING Apollo XI is the limited to Japan?

befobe

Thanks for the research, but surely due to my English, I don't really catch the point... What is the answer to your primary question according to you?

3rdstringholder

The battery on my phone ran down while reading the original post.😀

krogerfoot

@mountainunder, is this the 下りr sagari "r"(top), the cursive r dipping under the baseline?

Marcel81

Good evening,

i also have 145022 straight writing with apollo xi engraving. i ordered a extract from omega with pictures of the straight apollo xi writing.

But my watch was delivered to argentina inNovember 1970.

so is this possible?

Marcel81

Good evening,

i also have 145022 straight writing with apollo xi engraving. i ordered a extract from omega with pictures of the straight apollo xi writing.

But my watch was delivered to argentina inNovember 1970.

so is this possible?

pdxleaf

Collectors generally acknowledge that there is a lot of incomplete information, which means we may need to change what we believe to be true.

I am in the camp that believes that the Omega distributor in Japan was the first to conceive of the idea to create a stainless steel version of the 1969 gold speedmaster that was presented to the astronauts.

This does not preclude having SWA11 watches sold in other countries, such as Argentina. A possible scenario would be that an Argentinan dealer made a deal with a Japanese dealer and brought it to Argentina to sell. Or if the extract from Omega says the watch was originally sold in Argentina, then it's possible an Argentinan Omega dealer learned of the Japan ordered SWA11 and asked Omega to send him one. This would mean that two things are true, the watches were ordered by Japan and delivered to Japan, with an occasional watch being specifically requested for a different country.

Regarding your watch being sold in Argentina. There are a couple issues, but the primary issue is with the caseback font. The font on your watch is clearly different.

Your watch

A normal SWA11

That leads to these assumptions: the caseback was manufactured by someone other than Omega; or the caseback was manufactured by Omega.

Giving the benefit of the doubt that it was manufactured by Omega, why would Omega make use two different fonts? One explanation is that it might have been for countries other than Japan. Another explanation is that it might have been a service caseback.

Generally, when there are deviants from the norm, they tend to get greater scrutiny. I don't believe your caseback was made by Omega. It's possible I am incorrect, but I am waiting on more evidence. Just buying a watch in a country from a guy who says he bought it in the same country is not strong evidence. People's memories are often incorrect, as in the example of someone who inherited grandfather's watch and swears that grandfather never had it serviced but the watch is clearly polished and has replacement parts.

I agree that I am ignorant of all the facts regarding the source of the SWA11. I believe that most evidence points to Japan as being the initial driver for getting these watches made. I can imagine a scenario where a few watches were requested and sent to another country like Argentina, but I can't imagine why the casebacks would be different.

This is likely not a welcomed reply, but I hope it clarifies some of the reasoning. Regardless, we are all fans of Omega and the SWA11 and I respect that, even if we might disagree somewhat, at least until other evidence becomes available.

Edit:

Here's a photo of a later gold speedmaster caseback with font that is similar to your watch:

I have to admit that this gold font and your steel SWA11 font is very similar. We could believe these were both made by the same manufacturer. I am open to the idea that there might be two versions of the SWA11. However, the gold version still has a flat top on the 'A' and the '1969' is open, whereas yours has a pointy A and closed 1969. So it's still problematic.

I would like to hear thoughts of others but believe this is worth pursuing.