extract from the archives - purpose/point?

not in my experience for 17m, 18m, 19m serials.. I've heard the same for 15m and 16m, but I don't have any 2915's, so never tried.

I still try when I get a new one, just in case.... 😉

They are fun to have as part of telling history of the watch. Crazy to pay $150. I also have one for my Ploprof.

I was looking at the Speedmaster 50 auction by Christie's and many of the 2915s and 2998s were available with the extracts... any thoughts?

For example, lot 4 for 2915-2:
Accompanied by an OMEGA Extract from the Archives confirming delivery of the present watch in 1958 to Argentina.

It seems Omega is willing to bend their own policy of not providing Extracts for watches that old for auction houses only. I wonder why that is, brand awareness and publicity driving up prices and interest perhaps??

That sounds a little like you think there's some consipiracy going on ;-)

All of the above reasons are valid, and I'd like to add an additional one: research. One of our members is doing research on a specific watch, and is trying to get a feel for upper and lower bounds of serial numbers, in the hope of correlating the variants with periods in time, much as has been done extensively for Speedies already. Extracts are valuable for this, and thanks to the internet and people sharing his interest, he is able to compile multiple extracts. And yes, it would greatly help if they were free or $10 or something.

For me personally, it's mostly about an interest in the history of a watch (and a little bit about confirming that I haven't been swindled).

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

for a watch that sells for $100K, Omega may be able to 'locate' missing records, for a price.