Does Anyone Know How Many Straight Writing Speedmasters Were Produced?

What does that mean?

Ah, it means you have nothing substantial to say so you’re typing meaningless emojis. Got it.

More than once I’ve actually pondered whether he is a chatbot or AI.

Im surprised you have time to give advise to us minions while breathing that rarified air.

Unless I missed it, no one has been able to answer my original question which again, was: does anybody know how many straight writing Speedmasters were produced? I take it from reading all of the posts to date in this thread that the answer is "no." According to the latest edition of Moonwatch Only, the serial number range for the straight writing references is 31.00x.xxx to 32.857.xxx. Hypothetically, if we were maximize the serial number range, by say, filling in the gaps to make the range 31.000.000 to 32.857.999, and then do the math, that would yield a maximum of 1,857,999 units. Now, I'm sure that for all sorts of reasons that this analysis is simplistic and incorrect, but please tell me why that's so. For starters, I would assume that not all of the 861 calibers that were produced within this serial range ended up in Speedmasters with straight writing case backs.

If you were so inclined you could do a study based on the ‘mark, recapture method’ for estimating fish population sizes (also ‘German tank method’ from ww2).
Given the rates at watches reappear this may be more of a long term endeavour. I’ve thought about doing it before for vintage speedmasters in general, but things got in the way.

That could be a very long term endeavor, but it's an interesting idea.

You can actually get a broad estimation from a relatively small sample size. While at uni I had to complete an exercise using the method after witnessing taxis arriving/leaking the train station.

MWO book gives the last known production numbers of a Speedmaster , the 145.012, as 28000 in 2 years. So 14000 units p/y. After the moon landing this became a much more popular watch of course so lets up that for 70 and 71`s production making it 20000 units per year. Question is were all the case backs of the reguluar production SW in that year or also FQ ?
Makes more sense to have all them SW but i dont know if late 70`s and early 71`s also came with FQ. If so, let`s assume it was a 50/50 split and that means there are 10K SW out there.

But it could also be just 2489 pieces 😬..... he mister Aeschlimann , help us out here!

I think that I'll contact the folks at the Omega Museum and ask. I can't imagine that there's a much better source of information.

good plan ! I had a look at the info Chuck Maddox published wayback regarding all the different models to see if he had mentioned this, and he does not mention it as limited production but as a variation on the 145.022.

Listed in 1969, st 145.022 in black ;

Wonderful thread and appreciate all the info you all have shared. As I have a one owner SW FQ incoming with Box and Papers this thread has been very helpful to understand more of the nuances of the SW references. Serial on the watch starts 31.XXX.XXX but I can't remember the rest so I'll post when arrives but I do recall that it the purchase date mid to late 1973.


Coincidentally, I went to the Menta / Davidoff Brothers Pop-Up here in Los Angeles this past weekend and the Davidoff Brothers had brought the SW FQ that @SpeedyPhill posted for sale along with the SW A-11 (screengrab db1983) above. With my SW watch incoming I started to ask them some questions about the SW examples the had and what they'd be willing to share. Here's is what I learned from them, that they in turn had said they learned from the Omega Museum. A lot of it also coincides with the info you all have previously written before.

SW A-11:
- Predominantly (If not only) delivered to Japan.
- Should have all been fitted with an 1116 / 575 bracelet and end link combo as the Japanese Distributors wanted a stainless steel version that looked as close as possible BA 145.022-69
- Most EoA's for these they have seen have a production date in 1971
- Their contact at the Omega Museum stated that there were around 100 SW A-11 examples produced.

SW FQ
- Delivered to all over the world
- Bracelet end link combo was not regularized, they've seen many from; 1039/516, 1175/47, 1116/575, 1171/633
- EoA's with production dates as late as 1976 (it could have been 1978) but we were talking about dial designs as well so I may have mixed up the year. For sure it was 1976 or 1978. (Sorry about the ambiguity)
- No confirmed number of these is known by them currently.

While I understand there may be some skepticism with taking a dealers word for this info, I found them to be very knowledgeable and a lot of what they were saying about the contacts at the Omega Museum was similar to what I watched them say before in YouTube videos. Hoping I don't muddy the waters here, just passing along the info I received at the event.