A bit of a delay, but if you read through the thread you know I am a completest. So here is the final Speedmaster of the "861's to 1978"section, the 1978 Star Case 145.022 produced for NASA to comply with the "Buy American" act. This watch is from the second batch, and was not delivered to NASA, so unlike the first batch, they are legally in private hands. More can be seen here Note the Radial subdials, and the lack of SWISS markings on the dial Signed in the back, Star Watch Case Co You can see the profile of the case is very slightly different.
So Watches listed in this thread, from earliest to latest: 145.022-68 145.022-69 BA145.022-69 145.022-69 Grey Racing 145.022-69 SW 145.022-69 SW Apollo 145.022.71 NoNasa 145.022-71 145.022-74 145.022 Soyuz 145.022-76 145.022-78 145.022 Star Case
Bookmarked. Thanks for a fantastic post. Regarding the -68, I am one of the few who think that it (especially mine - clear bias) is very good looking / attractive …
What a fantastic post, i wasn't aware of this until it resurfaced. Grats to the addition of the "Star Case"!
Thank you @Spacefruit for your prolific hoarding and providing these always so clear information and pictures... I have a question and would appreciate hearing your thoughts: Your Star Watch case reminded me of another 1970's one I had seen without '-7X'. It was this one: https://omegaforums.net/threads/speedmaster-145-022-from-1970-don-and-non-nasa.83020/ I had never seen a caseback like this before. But I read the thread and found that the OP's view seemed conclusive to me. Having posted the above link I'm quite aware it's already been discussed by some experts here. However, I think that there might be a 'true story' about this 'KB' caseback and I wouldn't be surprised if another one popped up or new insights might be found some day. What do you think?
I just forgot to put it in the list, which I have updated. I am an airhead. The Soyuz is photographed in the second post of this thread. The crazy thing is, that means there are 13 speedmasters in that list to fill the 1968-1978 Calibre 861 group. Along the way I thought I was finished three times, only to realise I was not. After all at its simplest, the list is just 7 watches: 145.022-68 145.022-69 BA145.022-69 145.022-71 145.022-74 145.022-76 145.022-78 Whereas I think I now cover them all in the 13 watches listed above. I suppose there may be some crazy editions I do not know about, or issues by Omega to specialists? Does anyone know of anything? (Please no!)
I think it's one of those situations where there might be a run of stepped dials that bleed from the -71s to the -74s. As a rule, the huge majority of 74's are not stepped.