Hi guys,

A friend of mine has a mid 80s 145.022 that has had the bezel replaced and has a tear drop end chrono hand. He doesn't know the history of that particular watch but knows about these parts being incorrect for the model at hand.

However, he has already seen 3 other Speedmasters from the 80s online with the drop end hand instead of the 'correct' flat end chrono hand. We are both stumped as this is very curious and a bit strange..

My question is: is it possible/conceivable that the 145.022 could have been fitted with tear drop end hands this late in production? Or is it more likely that they have been replaced at some point with an older version hand, and if so does that even make sense? Surely it would be harder to get an older version of chrono hand than the standard issue at the time, no?

Has anyone seen this or have any reasonable explanation?

Thanks in advance!
Lou

 

Dont know if this helps or hinders, but here is a photo of mine that, AFAIK, is still original

Made in early 1983

The lume from this era tends to green more that yellow

Cheers paul

 

Probably just an incorrect service part. Who knows why? The bezel was replaced, so work has obviously been done on the watch.

 

@Sherbie thanks for your input, I too have one from that year 82/83 with the correct parts. His is just different...
Beautiful watch btw!

@Dan S thanks for the input.
I'm also inclined to think that way. However it is a bit odd that all 3 (so far) have an incorrect older/rarer service part?
On his the bezel was replaced and had work done obviously but the other examples he's found don't seem to be the case — all apparently correct and original to the watch, and matching (patina wise) drop end hand...

 

The only info we have to go by says that no, tear drop hands were not fitted to these models. As tempting as it may be to consider, 3 or 4 out of hundreds of thousands is not really anything to go on...

now if you know a single owner watch who bought it new, and has had the watch in his possession for it’s entire life, and this person has never had the watch serviced or maintenanced, and the watch has a tear drop hand, then you could reasonably believe it left the factory that way. Otherwise it’s infinitely more likely it simply had the hand swapped out. It’s pretty common.

 

Yep, this is what I think also. Thanks for your input!

 

Or they all used the same guy to service the watch. As mentioned it already has an updated bezel. So.... the simplest explanation...

 

Are the tear drops hands on the 145.022 tritium or superluminova?

If I am not wrong, Omega have service superluminova tear drop hands which would be easier to get and hence, explain away the "harder to get" part.

 

I can’t see an omega service centre putting any flavour of teardrop hand onto a 80s Speedy as it is the wrong part. The tritium ones are rare and expensive, the SL ones less so.

 

@boogedyboo That's a good question! To be honest, I do not know...

@padders that's my opinion too. Since I have no idea of where these were serviced, i'm assuming they must've been at some independent watchmaker that happened to have those hands at hand and just put them on instead of ordering the correct set from Omega, to get the job done quickly.

Cheers,
Lou