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An actual Grail - Michael Collins Gold Speedmaster auction

Evitzee
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Certainly a significant piece for a significant astronaut for a significant event. It should be in near mint condition if was seldom worn, if ever, by the late Mr. Collins. Interesting that he wound it 'every decade or so', in the interim it must have been kept in a safe location, or safe deposit box in a bank.
 
levkov
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Wow that indeed is a grail. I'm surprised it's not Phillips auctioning it
 
SpeedyPhill
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During a VIP banquet at the Warwick hotel in Houston, on 25th November 1969, all NASA astronauts who already made a Spaceflight mission were given a Gold Omega Speedmaster 145.022 chronograph.
These became known as the " Apollo 11 tribute " Speedmaster chronographs and this month N° 19 given to Apollo 11 CMP Michael Collins will be auctioned at Heritage Auctions, an auction house known for spaceflight-related events.
Since this NASA Astronaut Appreciation Dinner, during which 23 astronauts (Apollo 1 crew inclusive) received such a chronograph, a total of 32 astronauts received the Gold Speedmaster chronograph and so far I've seen photos of 18 astronauts wearing it afterwards... Collins among them!
NASA photo example shows Apollo 11 crew with Edwin Aldrin wearing N° 21.
😉
.
0_1969_GoldApollo11_.jpg GOLD.jpg
 
MTROIS
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momosono momosono
Why should they buy it? They already have nos. 1 and 2.
#1 and 2 were for politicians, who declined to accept the gift anyway, while this one was gifted and owned by one of the astronauts of the space program (and probably one of the more famous ones).
 
140dave
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levkov levkov
Wow that indeed is a grail. I'm surprised it's not Phillips auctioning it
It is a step below Phillips but its not a big step, it is a pretty good auction house and they set record sales in other categories. They do high-end in a few different categories and do aggressive cross marketing within their categories. They figure if you buy a $1.2 million USD sports trading card you probably want a nice watch, etc. I worked with Heritage recently on a pretty decent collection of sports memorabilia and I can give you 3 reasons they have this:
3 - Easy to work with, I mean really easy
2- They have a huge audience for more than watches like I mentioned and get good prices, its not some small house, check out some of the recent sale prices.
....and the #1 reason is...... 7.5% seller fee if you negotiate at all, and 10% is standard for HA. (Phillips is over 20% I believe)

edit to add: ...and they do 1-2 Space related auctions a year as well, lots of mission flown gear and pieces of spacecrafts etc. This may be part of a larger collection that is more than just a watch.
Edited:
 
Dan S
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A desirable watch in its own right, but I don't know if the provenance is particularly compelling. Just a presentation watch, not worn on any important event, or even worn by the recipient at all. Still, I'm sure it will fetch a lot of money ... everything does these days.
Edited:
 
SpeedyPhill
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Thus far I haven't found any photos showing Michael Collins wearing his n° 19 Gold "Apollo 11 tribute" Speedmaster BA 145.022 🤔
 
omegaman
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Thanks for the info. Looking forward to see what it fetches, my guessing > 1 million USD
 
pdxleaf
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For a brief glorious hour I was the highest bidder.
 
MSNWatch
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140dave 140dave
It is a step below Phillips but its not a big step, it is a pretty good auction house and they set record sales in other categories. They do high-end in a few different categories and do aggressive cross marketing within their categories. They figure if you buy a $1.2 million USD sports trading card you probably want a nice watch, etc. I worked with Heritage recently on a pretty decent collection of sports memorabilia and I can give you 3 reasons they have this:
3 - Easy to work with, I mean really easy
2- They have a huge audience for more than watches like I mentioned and get good prices, its not some small house, check out some of the recent sale prices.
....and the #1 reason is...... 7.5% seller fee if you negotiate at all, and 10% is standard for HA. (Phillips is over 20% I believe)

edit to add: ...and they do 1-2 Space related auctions a year as well, lots of mission flown gear and pieces of spacecrafts etc. This may be part of a larger collection that is more than just a watch.

HA's specialty is comic books and comic book arts. They hold the world records for prices in this field.
 
140dave
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MSNWatch MSNWatch
HA's specialty is comic books and comic book arts. They hold the world records for prices in this field.
They also set records with the worlds most valuable gold coin ($9.36mil) in 2021, sports cards, as well as video game cartridges (Mario, $1.56 million), other sports and entertainment memorabilia and they did 1.4 Billion in sales 2021. They are a Pop Culture auction house if you want to classify them. Less old and stodgy, more new money.
 
T
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My guess is Collins probably had this watch on his wrist a handful of times. In his time after Apollo 11 serving as the Director of the National Air and Space museum he wore what he thought was his Apollo 11 Speedmaster but was actually Armstrong’s watch when it was lent to him by mistake by the NASM. It was only noticed when he returned it and he wore it unknowingly for a number of years.

He was a pretty low key guy with a taste for things a little under the radar.

I had an opportunity to talk to him once and asked about his thoughts on the Speedmaster since he references its use "chronograph" a number of times in his book Carrying the Fire. He said it was a good watch, then he pulled up his shirt sleeve and said “but I prefer to wear the best $10 watch Walmart has to offer,” and showed me his Timex on a ratty Nylon strap.
Edited:
 
pdxleaf
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Waltesefalcon Waltesefalcon
I didn't bother bidding on it, I mean he didn't even walk on the moon.

True, but those other two guys aren't still floating around out there.

You can also thank him for the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.
 
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