Hi, all.

I am interested in buying a 1978 Speedmaster as a 40th birthday present for myself. Can someone give me an idea of what they are going for these days?

 

You’re about to have many people posting this:

http://speedmaster101.com/price-chart-2/

I have a birth year watch and I’m a fan of the extra meaning that comes from a birth year watch. Good luck in your hunt - they come up in the sales section here regularly. Keep an eye out.

 

Thank you very much for the quick reply. Looks like there is a lot of great info in that link.

 

Nothing like a birth year watch. I can't afford mine but have one from two years later. -69 is close enough for me at this point!

 

Make sure you run the serial through ilovemyspeedmaster.com

145.022-78 where made through 1980.

 

Great advice. Thank you! I am looking at one on ebay for 4,300. I will request the serial # and run it through.

 

If you care to, post some pictures of the watch you're looking at and we can give you some opinions on it's condition. There is hardly a speedmaster on ebay that we haven't seen, so it's probably one that many of us have already picked apart.

 

Form an oderly queue, please

https://omegaforums.net/threads/speedmaster-145-022-78.69746/

 

I was a 1957 baby, but I'm not a wealthy man @sjg22 ... What's my chances of a birth year Speedy?

 

$0.02 on an eBay purchase for you at this stage:

Anything you think is a good deal almost definitely isn’t. This is because there are many, many people hunting vintage Speedmasters, including some here. If it’s been on eBay for a day at a buy-it-now price you think is cheap, it isn’t cheap or it’d be gone.

You may be able to get something at a fair price, but you’re much more likely to overpay for something mediocre if you’re just starting your search for this watch, which it sounds like you are.

You can either post stuff you find on here for opinions (although when people post a watch a day, it gets quite tiresome). Or, take my initial advice and wait for one you like to show up in the Sales section on this forum. It’ll be vetted by the community, more likely to be from a safe and trustworthy source and you stand a much higher chance of buying quality at a reasonable price.

Hth

@nonuffinkbloke In your customary words, you’re fakkin f*cked, mate

 

Donovan. When you say "birth year", are we talking case reference date or production date?

 

I fear you're right @sjg22... 'fakked' indeed!
But I'm the eternal optomist and if I keep trudging around 'car boot' sales in cold, muddy, English fields every Sunday morning I'm confident that, at some point, I will spot a discarded, tarnished, 2915-1 in amongst the worthless jumble.

 

I believe I am going to take the advice of buying one off this forum to ensure quality, authenticity, etc. But for my knowledge on what is good or not I have posted pics for the board experts to review.

There is also a pic of the movement, but I couldnt transfer it for some reason. Here is the link to the posting.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-Omega-Speedmaster-Professional-Moon-Watch-ST145022-Non-Polished

 

Great call on buying from this forum. It is much safer, both in quality of sellers and product.

Were any 145.022-78's actually produced in 1978? If the earliest accept s/n is somewhere in the 44 millions, then ilovemyspeedmaster estimates the earliest production date of April 1980. Even with a fudge-factor of a year, the first still wouldn't have been produced until 1979... But maybe it's not that black and white. Regardless, If the OP really want's a birth year watch, the 145.022-76 reference would still fit, and is generally more available than the -78. For what it's worth...

 

To my eyes that one looks correct. I’d be interested in seeing a clearer picture of the lume plots in natural light (I think they’re fine but I’d want to double check).

I’ve seen nice examples of these go in the lower $3k range (search “145.022-78” on WatchRecon.com - make sure to choose “all days” as a search parameter, and you’ll see a couple past sales), but i wouldn’t say it’s a bad buy.

 

Umm I’ve never seen a -76 extract with78 production, and I’m keeping track of them.

 

There ya go. Nvm on that then...

 

Interesting, what's the latest Extract you've seen for a -76?

 

39,925,xxx 9/77 C3 dial

There is a 39,926,9xx but no extract and “I love“ puts it May 78 but that’s inconclusive. I also have a 39,925,8xx which ilove also puts at Feb 78 but no extract on it.

With a number difference of less then 1000 I am hesitant on the granularity to put -76 production into -78, and if there was it was very brief. esp when I have records of extracts with 3k difference from less then 3 months apart.