Calibres 1620/1621 - A picture guide to the LCD Speedmaster variations

Bill Sohne · Aug 23, 2017

HI

One of my favorite parts of the 1620 display..... if you look closely in the lower left hand corner of the LCD display ... its marked " SWISS MADE "

VERY COOL.......

Good Hunting

Bill Sohne

Dash1 · Aug 23, 2017

Great write up on an often ignored line of Omegas. Thank you.

Janlp · Aug 23, 2017

My collection.

kov · Aug 23, 2017

Janlp

My collection.

Very cool, thanks for sharing and congrats ! There are some rare birds here 👍 but not all of them are cal. 1620.

You might want to double check sizes and references I've mentioned in my posts with your watches and let us know if something is wrong? - You obviously own most of them which is not my case 😀

kov · Aug 23, 2017

Cal. 1621 ALASKA IV NASA Prototypes for the Shuttle Pilots

Now last but not least there has been a very small batch batch of cal 1620 deviations, especially made for the NASA.

According to the Omega Museum, within the Alaska series of Speedmasters presented to NASA, in 1979 Omega created a new prototype the “Alaska IV” based on the Speedmaster Professional Quartz reference ST186.0004 with a calibre 1621 movement which used a system called the BETA light that consisted of two tritium tubes behind the LCD display to illuminate the display. The case of this model was also thicker than the regular model in order to fit the thicker movement with tritium tubes.

A total of 20 prototypes were produced and 12 examples were sent to NASA astronauts in 1979 who tested the watch in training and on the Space Shuttle. Ultimately, they chose not to adopt the watch.

The last expamples publicly sold were auctioned at Christie's during the now famous Omega Speedmaster 50 sale.

That Lot 31 was really underestimated 😁

Back to the watches.

Out of the batch of 20 watches, some have been hand engraved (numbered) on the caseback and some others not. All of them have 1621 engraved inside the caseback and the movement has no 1620 patch and no serial number.

Unumbered ALASKA IV Prototype

Numbered ALASKA IV Prototype

Also interesting to mention, the dial of the prototypes doesn't have the word "Light" (for above explained reasons) but is also much lighter color compared to the standard production 186.0004 :

Here we have a prototype and a regular 186.0004 aside to compare the cases have to measure them to provide precise values. The pushers on the Prototype are obviously also wider than the regular 186.0004.

If you have any other information to share about this Alaska IV batch, I am obviously very interested to hear/read from you 😀

kov · Aug 23, 2017

Wondering to know if anybody else here owns one of those LCD watches or maybe even one of the prototype? 🙄 Let us see them !

Tom Dick · Aug 23, 2017

Amazing post @kov , I will add my research when I get time over the coming week

Here is mine, I also have one undergoing service at STS at the moment, in hoping to have it back in a week or two so will add pictures of that too

Ken G · Aug 23, 2017

kov
Ref:186.0010, Case No.386.0010, Produced around 1979

Cal.1620 quartz movement

Brown dial with central digital display, day indication on underneath digital aperture, Speedmaster Professional Quartz under the day indications

3Xmm Square shaped case with clipped back. Start/stop, split/light and lap/reset buttons at 2, 3 and 4, date-sec button at 10 and recessed set/select button at 8

Leather (?) bracelet with signed gold-plated buckle

Case, dial and movement signed

Looks like this one is really very scarce - I could have found a very limited information and photographs on the web so far.

Does anybody here own one ? Any infos are more then welcome.

First of all, Congrats on a TERRIFIC thread - truly wonderful stuff!

Also, the above watch is actually mine! 😀 (the first set of pics were the seller's; the others were taken by me). I picked it up earlier in the year. I don't really have too much additional info, I don't think, but please fire away if there's anything I might be able to tell you about it...

I also have the Constellation 1620 (as well as a 1616, a Memomaster, and a Chrono-Quartz). The Constellation came back from Bienne a few months ago. Here it is:

Ken G · Aug 23, 2017

Bill Sohne
HI

One of my favorite parts of the 1620 display..... if you look closely in the lower left hand corner of the LCD display ... its marked " SWISS MADE "

VERY COOL.......

Good Hunting

Bill Sohne

I totally agree!

Here it is:

kov · Aug 24, 2017

Bill Sohne
One of my favorite parts of the 1620 display..... if you look closely in the lower left hand corner of the LCD display ... its marked " SWISS MADE "

Ken G
I totally agree!

Actually I have found out that not all of them have this "SWSS MADE" string on the LCD panel. Maybe it's been added to / or removed from during the production which led to series with and others without.

Below we have a good example : first picture (from the web) doesn't have that SWISS MADE string and the second (my 186.0004) has it 😀

kov · Aug 24, 2017

Ken G
First of all, Congrats on a TERRIFIC thread - truly wonderful stuff!

Also, the above watch is actually mine! 😀 (the first set of pics were the seller's; the others were taken by me). I picked it up earlier in the year. I don't really have too much additional info, I don't think, but please fire away if there's anything I might be able to tell you about it...

I also have the Constellation 1620 (as well as a 1616, a Memomaster, and a Chrono-Quartz). The Constellation came back from Bienne a few months ago.

Thank you !! 👍

Oh, very cool 😀 Boths sets of pictures came from the wild wild web, so funny to find the current owner of the watch, great stuff 😎 Hope you don't mind those pictures to be used as a reference - that watch is really scarce (or its owners don't make any wrist shots or other pics for the web), I struggled to find more usable photograph.

Congrats for the Constellation, very nice and well conserved one 👍

Regarding the cal. 1616, I'm asking myself if we should add it here but I believe it would mess up the whole logic of the thread that started with the specs of the cal.1620... or you might want to make another one for the 1616 ? 😉

Ken G · Aug 24, 2017

kov
Thank you !! 👍

Oh, very cool 😀 Boths sets of pictures came from the wild wild web, so funny to find the current owner of the watch, great stuff 😎 Hope you don't mind those pictures to be used as a reference - that watch is really scarce (or its owners don't make any wrist shots or other pics for the web), I struggled to find more usable photograph.

It's an absolute honor to have my pictures featured in this thread - no problem at all! 👍

In fact, here are a few others of this model:

kov
Congrats for the Constellation, very nice and well conserved one 👍

Thanks! 😀 I'm a big fan of the integrated bracelet/case on this model...

kov
Regarding the cal. 1616, I'm asking myself if we should add it here but I believe it would mess up the whole logic of the thread that started with the specs of the cal.1620... or you might want to make another one for the 1616 ? 😉

I agree - keeping this strictly 1620 is pretty cool. I'm not sure there would be much mileage in a 1615/16 thread, but who knows?! 😀

milhouse · Aug 24, 2017

thanks for sharing

Humptymarsbar · Aug 24, 2017

I like these!

Tom Dick · Aug 29, 2017

Well chaps if Ebay is to be believed, and I'm not sure it always is! Then these have just gone through the roof in value

Yes unceasingly rare watch and I would say now all day long worth £1500 in very good condition, maybe £2000 as this one is but £3800? I'm not sure we are quite there yet!

Ken G · Aug 29, 2017

I really hope we're not there yet - I don't have one yet! 🙁

Andy K · Aug 29, 2017

Ken G
I really hope we're not there yet - I don't have one yet! 🙁

I hope so too, I recall passing one up on eBay about 4 years ago that sold for $750. I thought it was ridiculous for a 30 year old quartz watch. 🤦

Toishome · Aug 29, 2017

WOW....Thanks for all this great info. Feels like I just won the lottery of the digital Omegas.

Dash1 · Aug 30, 2017

Here's mine. I bought it quite a few years ago from Germany, with box and manual.
When I got it I posted it here on the forum but from memory the response was luke warm!

Dash1 · Aug 30, 2017

I also used to own this one.

Calibres 1620/1621 - A picture guide to the LCD Speedmaster variations

Bill Sohne

Dash1

Janlp

kov

kov

kov

Tom Dick

Ken G

Ken G

kov

kov

Ken G

milhouse

Humptymarsbar

Tom Dick

Ken G

Andy K

Toishome

Dash1

Dash1

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