Hi, I need some new hands, as you can see in the picture, I believe all of them are changed. However, the subdial hands and maybe chrono have the right shape so I can live with them for now. Been offered new alpha service minute and hour hands for £200. Does that seem fair? Throwing it out there - interested in an original set, but I heard they are hard to come by...Any comments or advice appreciated. /Ed

 

I would say the price for the service set sounds about right, however they’ll still be incorrect. I guess if you aged the lume in the service set they might look a little better than these white ones while you wait (patiently) for an original set. Original ones do come up for sale but would go for at least a couple of thousand at a guess.

 

I bought a -6 at auction in Jan18 and have been looking diligently ever since and no hands have come up at any price anywhere!

 

Maybe not that diligently:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-...729896?hash=item3d859e01a8:g:740AAOSw6hBchngAPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

Note that those are vintage service hands

 

Good try Dash they are not curved hence are service hands as kov states, check out our go to site here - http://speedmaster101.com/blog/and-now-the-alpha-minute-hands-for-the-2998/

 

They are still, however, better than modern service hands...and the next best thing IMHO (as they are still vintage).

 

Maybe. I Can’t be sure they don’t have a curved profile (across the width of the hand) from the photos, in some they do look slightly curved but I’m obviously no expert.

 

I beg to differ. Those hands listed on eBay still have curved profile but what concerns me is the squared-end lume area on the hour hand compared to that of the minute hand, the fact that they present different lume color between the two, and the exorbitant asking price. Hence they, IMHO, are vintage hands as kov said. I'd ask to see the underside of the hands and how they are tested with Geiger meter. Unfortunately this seller isn't willing to answer questions easily.

 

I've only found a handful of sets over years but they do turn up. Just make sure when you find them that the minute hand is 15.4mm and curved and the hour hand is 11mm

For example (NFS):

 

Yes I can attest...I bought my 2998-5 January last year. I finally found the correct only a few weeks ago. But definitely worth the effort!!

By the way. Since I was living with relumed service hands on the watch I can tell you that the service hands are longer and simply curving them to fit won't look right.

Even if you somehow trimmed the service hands, you will notice that the lume cutouts are not same as the real vintage ones. And there are other details you can observe that are different.

So really there is no fooling the discerning collector from the real ones and the modified services ones, in my experience.

 

Thanks for all your helpful comments. I will keep on searching. Ext1 do you still keep the service hands? Will you sell them?

 

These just popped up on eBay

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/163615664752

 

No one would ever accuse Mr Speed-Meister of being to cautious with his pricing.

That said, find another pair

 

Yup... with a ton of patience I found mine for around 2k ish. ＰＡＴＩＥＮＣＥ！！

 

Agreed

 

I like the Geiger pic, showing just normal, natural radiation (0,12mySv/h)

 

Riding my bicycle today with hand set as follows:
Subdials - correct, stick, but might be fitted in the 70s together with the service hands i got the watch with
Minute and hour, Alpha vintage service hands - should be curved.
Sweep seconds - vintage hand with correct look, but not confirmed from 2998.

 

Quite happy for now, but still out looking for the correct minute and hour set. Willing to make a trade including a nice condition 145.012 -67 or a 1969 145.020 Seamaster Soccer timer.