Dear friends of fine watches,

I'd like to present my '65 105.003 Ed White in my first post in this forum. As a big fan of Apollo era space flight, I had to buy one from my favourite dealer and collector Michael Larsberg in Berlin three years ago.

Feel free to comment on what you think about this watch!

Greetings from Germany,
Andy

 

hello andy. i,m no expert, but WOW i love it

 

H Andy!

Welcome here, nice EW!

We would gladly like to see some more pictures.

Did the seller give you additional informations about the condition or did you find out some things yourself?

For example the hands look relumed to me

Thats no problem of course, just curious...

 

I don't have any more information about this watch. I simply bought it from the dealer, which is a very nice person (for real), I simply trust him.

All my knowledge is from Williams site and I'm curious about the hands too. So I ran outside into the sun, held my cheap eyeglass to the lense of my Pixel 3a and got this picture. I hope you can see some more details, I'm totaly new to this kind of photography.

Greetings,
Andy

 

Is this watch totally original from 1965, I have no idea and nor do I care because it looks great, its appearance is of a watch that has seen 55 years of wear, 55 years of love and its condition suits it just fine in my humble opinion.

A fantastic watch, wear and enjoy in good health. Congratulations.

 

@Andy.V A few more shots would help - doesn't necessarily have to be outside, but good lighting helps. Did the dealer send you an images of the movement and the inner case back?

Some examples below - (which show my crown is not original)

 

Actually I took a slow motion video of this watch when it was open three years ago:

 

Hi, wlecome to OF and also greetings from Germny.
As avove said more pics from the spec would help. IMO your watch looks very attractive.
Best Hajo
P.S. take the first pic and create an Avatar

 

Did you try to flash an UV light to the hands?

 

I beg pardon for the late reply! The lume on the hands is dead, even after exposure to UV-light. And I took some more shots.

Greetings from sunny Germany,
Andy

 

Sunny Germany? So I guess you are located in southern Germany, we got rain and clouds further north!

Thank you for the additional pictures, they give a far better impression!

Would you like some further comments on the watch details?

 

Yes, South Germany

And yes, please, I'm keen on expertise!

 

Ok Andy,

first let me say you have a nice watch, you enjoy it and thats the most important.

If you spend a lot time looking at and buying Speedmasters (and other watches) you always look at details because you want to have an original condition watch.

Thats how I see it...

I don't how the seller described the watch when selling it to you but in terms of originality there are some points to be considered:

Crown is a later replacement, the pushers are very shiny so I think they have been replaced too.

As the hands are dead under UV light it seems clear that they have been relumed as I supposed.

The case has been polished but that's usually the case on a 60 year old watch. IMO it had seen a bit too much polish.

On the other hand you have a good looking dial likeley with the original lume.

Bezel is in quite good condition and its an original one. The movement also seems in good condition
The watch looks very good with the dark brown watch band

So I would say a nice daily wearer which you can enjoy.

You always have to compare the condition on the background of the price you paid to come to a final assessment.

If you like you can tell us the price you paid so you would know if it was OK.

All the best

 

Thanks a lot for your effort! You confirmed all the points I could find for myself, except one:

Question: I tried to activate the after glow after exposing to a normal fluorescent tube, I couldn't see any glow in the dark. Did you mean observing the lume under pure UV light, black light? Is the old tritium based lume acting differently than later lume? I'd like to know if the hands are original or a (very eaarly?) replacement...

 

I find one of these the best things to use to check lume authenticity, although it's not a completely reliable check (nothing is). I think the point Passover was making was that original (i.e. non-altered non-relumed) lume tends to glow in the dark after exposure to UV, but a relume (since it is largely just yellow paint) doesn't. One of these (exceedingly cheap) things is a useful tool to have.

 

If relume using luminova material of course it still glows but much brighter.

 

yes, fair point.

 

As I understand it there is material ‘out there’ that does have some luminescence properties.

I’m still learning how to tell the difference when the results are close to vintage tritium.