Dear all,

I would like to ask your advice: have you ever seen a cut off "P" and "A" in the word " SPACE" other lettering seem to be correct for a 71 SPM case back (horizontal Q, Sarif D and Pointed W)?

Thanks you guys for your help!

 

Hi and welcome
I think you better show us the rest of the watch?

 

here are the other photo's

 

I do not have a case opener, so I cannot give you photo's of that.

 

I do not doubt that the watch is not authentic as I could check the watch with the available information (moon watch only book/speedmaster101 etc) and it came from a respectable watch collector in the Netherlands btw.
Thx again for your help!

 

Well now I can see it I think it's a nice patianted example of a 145.022-71 with correct hands dial and bezel.

What raised my eyebrows were the non OEM end links and the state of polish under the lugs - but I'm no longer concerned.

It's good, I would say the lettering has been degraded by enthusiastic polishing

 

Thanks Spacefruit for your help. the end links are not the 633 links. The bracelet is a 1125 (seamaster band) what I was told that is was quite common in those days to use. I believe the 1125 is currently also used for the FOIS speedmaster.

It still seems to be a mystery to me as it looks like if the letters have not been 'stamped' correctly in stead of polished out. Could it not be a 'faulty' production batch?

 

Looking at the overall condition of the caseback, I'd say it's a pretty clear case of overpolishing.

 

There has been polishing, but over polishing of the case, that is not the case. For example, I can still scrape my nails on the bevels of the front of the case. I think it is difficult to show it on a picture.

 

I did say that the caseback was overpolished...

But if I were to judge the condition of the rest of the case from the above pictures, I'd say that it has been polished more than a few times, but pretty competently, so it isn't very obvious. It is possible to retain crisp bevels on polished cases, and this one looks great

 

Thx!

I made another picture ware you can see that the stroke of the P and the A abruptly stops...

 

Since it abruptly ends at the first downleg of the "A" I think whoever was polishing it put a little too much pressure and realized it quite quickly and reduced the pressure. You can see the polishing swirls seem to get a little deeper right after the D.

 

I'm going to go with a small stamping error that went past QC based on that pic. Interesting yes, affects value in any way? I would think not.

 

thanks Tpatta: it is still a bit of a mystery for me as I would expect it would catch the other letters as well.
I would agree more with a stamping error theory of Foo2rama: also thx for your two cents Foo2rama!

 

I would think if it was over polished it would gradually fade into the case. In the closeup it appears to be a hard edge, this is what makes me think there was a problem with the stamp.

 

Totally agree---that's not from (over)polishing. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more examples like that, just that people don't notice. Perhaps they'll show up in this thread as everyone starts looking.

 

I think a created a new "200" omega speedmaster 'grail': lets call it the "chopped PA" speedmaster

 

I totally agree with you : I have a 145022-71 with the same " writting error " but not on the same letters (and I think the case of my speedmaster is unpolished). I will try to post a picture as soon as possible.