That's my thought on these.... unless it's got the box and the papers, or some sort of paper trail showing that it is from Cartier... it could have been done by anyone. My gripe is that it makes it considerable less attractive.
Milton has the Oval O, period flat foot crown, DON, original minute hand that touches minute hash marks. Plus Cartier signed.
Does that make it worth the premium they're asking? This has the feel of "stick a big number on it, it's a Speedmaster, AND it says Cartier on the dial"...
I have lots of love for HQM, but I have to say I'm not so hot about the look of that caseback - shallow and looks hand-engraved when compared to the deep and fat font text found on other gold BA145.022s. Shallowness aside I did side-by-side comparison and noticed a couple places where the font differed too. Unless we're speculating that the Cartier run of gold speedies are somehow different, or that Cartier themselves did the caseback engraving... Both of which I've never heard of before, but admittedly I am no expert in this field.
Of course it doesn’t equate to the number their asking. Just pointing out the differences between the two watches. Also HQ has a caseback with an earlier writing style.
Earlier casebacks were shallow engraved. Later casebacks were deeper and wider engraved. If you claim to be no expert on the field, please refrain from confusing others.
That was a genuine question, rather than a snarky comment... Looking at the images at full resolution, I can't help but think that the Cartier looks a bit wonky, and uncentered. Wonder if Cartier would provide sale records?
It wasn’t a snarky reply too mate. You know me. I’m just trying to provide some info and context as to the obscene asking price. I too disagree with the pricing. I would presume 60k to be a more “correct” price. Maybe they didn’t do many Cartier prints! Or any at all! Thus the wonky style!
Sorry dude, type is the worst format when discussing this kinda stuff! I'm left wondering that too. Comparing the printing to the one on Fratello, and @Spacefruit's one, the other text also looks a little wobbly... although that could just be variation in printing I guess.
I'm very curious about the caseback as well...it doesn't at first glance seem up to normal Omega standards. Specifically the fonts are completely without serif and very plain. But.. Last year I saw a listing for a solid gold Seamaster 176.007 with a similarly shallow and unusual caseback. At the time, I dismissed the engraving as a poor non-oem attempt. The hallmarks and the stamping on the inside of the caseback looked legit. Since then I have seen another gold 176.007 with remnants of the same engraving, so I'm now of the belief that the engraving was legitimate. Still unsure why they were made this way...my guess, and it is just a guess, is that the fonts were intentionally light and narrow to be easily polished off if the owner wanted to add their own engraving. And now this Speedmaster...for posterity, here's the Speedy: And here's the Seamaster:
Just realized this HQ one has been there for almost a year. Phillips on IG posted they privately sold a fullset No. 82 for CHF 140,000 caseback looks similar style to the no 50? https://www.instagram.com/p/BrhuRDuh4Ky/?hl=en
