Hi guys,

So I finally bought my first vintage watch a couple of months ago, a Heuer Autavia 7763. Now I've been bitten by the bug, and am looking for another vintage watch.

I have my eye on a Speedmaster Mk. II with a racing dial. I have researched moonwatches quite a bit, but there's not much out there about Mk. II's. What should I be looking for in these watches?

I recently tried one on at a dealer in Boston that was completely overhauled by Omega. It was nice, but kind of lacked the charm of a watch with some patina (also, too nice to wear everyday).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Rich

 

Basically you can find the Mark II in B&W face and racing dial ,,is nice and recently Omega launched the new version ( rather faithful to the original one ) , but personally I would try to get the original Speedmaster version

 

Hi Rich,

Sounds like you are, wisely , after a vintage 'Racing' with a little character.
It's very much down to personal taste with these as each opportunity arises.
Some cases have been completely polished to a mirror finish others still contain a fair amount of the 'starburst' graining but may have the odd scratch through it here and there.
You'll be looking for a T-Swiss Made-T dial if you want original. The luminous hour markers can be in various states from perfect to, what I assume is, scraped clean. The vibrancy of the colours also varies a lot.
The hands are something that seems to depend on the photographer, assuming you are not able to see a piece in person. There is a complete colour range of bright orange down to the washed out yellow on my own example. Some looks "sing" to me and others don't. I have, however, witnessed completely contrasting apparent colours in different pictures within the same listing of the one watch.
Replacement crystals with the tachymetre underneath are readily available and can transform a watch with a chipped and scratched one.
There are a couple of different bracelets that were original on these. One I like, the other I'm not so fussed on.
The 861 movement is well proven and you should easily be able to find a watchmaker to service it.

There seemed to be a lot of Omega overhauled ones a few years ago. They did look amazing, especially on an Omega mesh which seemed to be the trend, but as you say lacked charm. I'm surprised that more haven't been going down this route with the fairly recent MKII re-issue having been released. There are a number of people that can now weld and re-lap cases to perfection and adding a service racing dial and hand set makes a spectacular watch, and one that must come in $$$'s cheaper than a re-issue.

Hopefully you find an original one in as close to your own ideas of perfection as possible,

And keep it that way
Happy hunting.

Ian

 

@Emeister makes a good point about the case so just to add to that, a lot of cases have been badly polished over the years and the sharp facets on the top and bottom have been rounded off. This can't be rectified without taking off a considerable amount of the case material. These mirror finished, faceted edges are an important feature of the Mk II. I would try to find a case that hasn't been polished and then you can take the decision as to whether the case gets re-finished or not.

This first photo was an eBay seller's one for a wreck I bought to restore. You can clearly see the rounded edges:


The case couldn't be refinished so I bought another, untouched but scratched case on eBay and had it re-finished by STS (Omega's service agent in the UK)

 

Thanks for your input guys. Lovely example there, Stewart,

Very good point about the condition of the case facets, they do make or break these watches. I did look at a couple of examples, one that was over polished and didn't have definition in the side facets and one that was near perfect.

The hunt is on...

 

Just to update. I purchased this a couple of months ago from Carlo right before he decided to sell his entire omega collection. Needed a couple of things fixed, but now it is in great shape. Now I just need to figure out what is next for the collection. Thinking about selling my Heuer Autavia and picking up another Speedmaster.

 

Looks like a new one! Resembles the 2014 racing dial edition a lot. I love this watch. I like it better when it has got the old charm with it, bu yours is sharp. The MK II racing dial was my first serious Omega purchase and I am planning on never to sell this watch.

 

I bought a beaten up example for not much a few years ago and STS re lapped the case and replaced the dial and hands as well as giving it a service.
It looks great and as my eyes get older I appreciate being able to read it in dim light.
I've still got the original parts.