Hello, new to the forum and slowly trying to digest just some of the enormous amounts of information here.

I have recently been bitten by the Omega Speedmaster bug after buying a watch produced in my birth year. I was able to pick up a decent 145.012-069 over the past few weeks. All was well but I started reading more and more about the history of Speedmasters and got totally hooked. I have decided that I would like to add an Ed White to my collection. I have looked on Chrono24 and Ebay and have found quite a few for sale with a large range or prices and an even larger range of conditions.

I have used SpaceFruit's fantastic resource at www.speedmaster101.com to help me with what to look for. The price chart he has is useful too but the range between running and good is large.

Firstly, I am not sure if I am allowed to post links or pictures from active listings on those sites to ask for feedback. Secondly, if any of you have any advice on how I should proceed with my search that would be very much appreciated. I am not in a huge rush and I would like to make an informed decision with this major purchase.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

Feel free to post photos (they are better than links).

 

Post photos, ask questions, buy this https://www.booksetc.co.uk/books/view/-9782940506309, read a lot.

good luck.

 

The best advice you'll get on here IMHO will be to look in the For Sale section of the forum as the description and quality of the watches sold by the other members surpasses that of watches for sale elsewhere.

 

Thanks, I ordered it a couple days ago. Unfortunately, I didn't see this link and paid full price for it!

 

You are, and you are advised to do exactly that

Buy the best one you can find because chances are should you fall out of love, someone else will also find it lovely. Rather pay a little bit more if need be, then try to sacrifice condition for saving a fraction of the price. At this kind of price range, once the flaws of the 'cheaper' one start to bother you, it wont cost the saved fraction to remedy...but a whole watch more (and thats a lot of money). Maybe you love totally ruined looking watches...in which case, ignore Most importantly : buy what sings to you, but make sure its the correct part of the brain that is speaking! Ignore the 'Fear Of Missing Out' voice...these are not rare watches, another one will come along.

 

Are you just looking for an Ed White or a birth year EW? I ask as while it’s not impossible, finding a ‘69 produced EW will be very difficult indeed. There were very few delivered in ‘69

 

After having found a watch that you want to buy, I recommend you ask for the expert opinions here before you pull the trigger.

Good luck with your search!

 

I am "just" looking for any Ed White. The year does not matter.

 

Here is one that I am looking at.

My initial analysis:
- Replacement Hands (uggh!!), Crown, and Pushers
- Replacement Crystal with some scuffing
- Dial looks clean, plots/lume???
- Don Bezel looks genuine and in decent vintage condition
- Case looks recently polished
- Caseback has damage at one tooth. Slight scratches that could not be removed during polish
- New 1125 bracelet?
- With Extract from Archives

My biggest question is the lume on the plots. I can't tell if they are original or relumed. The color looks off and it looks like brush marks on some plots.

The white hands really detract from the appearance and would be high priority to replace.

 

before anything else, those hands would bother me

 

Totally agree! Those would be at the top of the list to replace. Not sure how painful that would be.

 

Thanks for this, it is very useful. I realize my FOMO voice is off the charts so I need to deal with that.

 

"Fear (of missing out) is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering"

SpeedMaster Yoda

Supress the FOMO, it will only lead to suffering in the end. Take your time, find an example you are truly happy with, not one that you daily have to justify to yourself.

 

Listen to that voice Yes, those are definitely not original. Looks like someone laid tracks of cheese on the hour markers, and grilled the dial till they started melting...

 

Also ,beware of pictures; it can be surprisingly difficult to properly assess a watch on pictures only, whatever the quality:
- defects can be hidden, or highlighted
- overall patina is hard to see, and that is very important in a vintage watch. Better a slightly incorrect pretty watch than a 100% correct ugly one.

So if you think of plunking 10k in a watch, use your feet and see it for yourself.

For example, I acquired my Ed White in a trade. The pictures were very honest, not pretty, every defect very clearly seen; I thought the watch was OK but ugly and I would flip it for a profit as soon as I received the parcel... it did not cost me much after all. It turns out that I actually like this watch, the various defects and patina work together, so I kept it and wear it regularly with pleasure. On paper it is not a "good" watch, in reality it is (it also depends on the price of course).

 

Ed White lume can be disconcertingly irregular but I am fairly sure that is a relume. The blobbiness is not a good sign. As for the hands...