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Spacefruit
··Prolific Speedmaster HoarderOffered here at an auction house I haven’t seen before.
Interesting they have no buyers premium - so the bid you make is what you pay. I suspect that this results in lower overall results, as I have always found I can over bid, not quite calculating properly in the heat of the auction.
Before delving into it I was struck by three things.
The bezel is a service bezel. These have all been seen with DO90’s and so any valuation will have to be lowered to take into account that a correct bezel is $2000-5000.
The chrono hand is square end. These are seen on BR’s but I prefer to see a long needle, Ultraman style hand.
Lastly, the lume is white, and I prefer to see a little patina.
The estimate is CHF 40,000 - 80,000. While that’s a huge amount of money, it’s not for a correct and attractive Black Racing.
This one is struggling to be attractive from my point of view, a point of view that is formed from handling over 12 of the suggested 20 in factory released black racing dial 145.012’s in existence. As an aside, I think there are more than 20 factory issued black racings, but I wonder how many survive. There are also several watches assembled from loose dials which are not factory watches.
Reading on, we have a much bigger issue:
Note the Reference is given as calibre 861 145.022-68. All the watches I have seen with BR dials are 145.012-67 with two being -68. So obviously calibre 321, and serials are 26xx,xxxx. I don’t think there is any speedmaster collector who feels this might be a long lost prototype.
We don’t have a movement shot, nor a full serial. So perhaps the house made an error, and it’s a calibre 321 145.012, or it is as described an 861 145.022.
I have never seen a black racing dial in a calibre 861, and obviously all the other BR dials re for calibre 321 with feet to fit. I expect all the loose BR dials are also for cal 321.
I assume it is as described in the catalog, and my conclusion is this is not a factory watch - and has been assembled.
The value is all in the dial. However this dial will have feet for an 861, so it will not fit properly to a 321 without work that is slightly risky. Now that the archives are closed, allegedly temporarily, someone with a 2607xxxx serial might be tempted to buy the watch, break out the dial and fit it and wing it, perhaps returning it to auction.
Black racings are very rare, and taught over when in good condition at auction. The highest price achieved was at AQ, a non pro for $212,000. The lowest at auction was a dubious example at Phillips that failed to find a home at $40,000.
so just how much is this watch worth, and are the buyers aware of what they are buying?
Even the catalog description calls it “mysterious”
Interesting they have no buyers premium - so the bid you make is what you pay. I suspect that this results in lower overall results, as I have always found I can over bid, not quite calculating properly in the heat of the auction.
Before delving into it I was struck by three things.
The bezel is a service bezel. These have all been seen with DO90’s and so any valuation will have to be lowered to take into account that a correct bezel is $2000-5000.
The chrono hand is square end. These are seen on BR’s but I prefer to see a long needle, Ultraman style hand.
Lastly, the lume is white, and I prefer to see a little patina.
The estimate is CHF 40,000 - 80,000. While that’s a huge amount of money, it’s not for a correct and attractive Black Racing.
This one is struggling to be attractive from my point of view, a point of view that is formed from handling over 12 of the suggested 20 in factory released black racing dial 145.012’s in existence. As an aside, I think there are more than 20 factory issued black racings, but I wonder how many survive. There are also several watches assembled from loose dials which are not factory watches.
Reading on, we have a much bigger issue:
Note the Reference is given as calibre 861 145.022-68. All the watches I have seen with BR dials are 145.012-67 with two being -68. So obviously calibre 321, and serials are 26xx,xxxx. I don’t think there is any speedmaster collector who feels this might be a long lost prototype.
We don’t have a movement shot, nor a full serial. So perhaps the house made an error, and it’s a calibre 321 145.012, or it is as described an 861 145.022.
I have never seen a black racing dial in a calibre 861, and obviously all the other BR dials re for calibre 321 with feet to fit. I expect all the loose BR dials are also for cal 321.
I assume it is as described in the catalog, and my conclusion is this is not a factory watch - and has been assembled.
The value is all in the dial. However this dial will have feet for an 861, so it will not fit properly to a 321 without work that is slightly risky. Now that the archives are closed, allegedly temporarily, someone with a 2607xxxx serial might be tempted to buy the watch, break out the dial and fit it and wing it, perhaps returning it to auction.
Black racings are very rare, and taught over when in good condition at auction. The highest price achieved was at AQ, a non pro for $212,000. The lowest at auction was a dubious example at Phillips that failed to find a home at $40,000.
so just how much is this watch worth, and are the buyers aware of what they are buying?
Even the catalog description calls it “mysterious”
Edited:
