Finally received my 145.022 – 69 back from resto-service !

Finally in my hands again after + 7 months, an agonizing wait in total opposition to my character which prefers to have things moving along in a much faster pace. And about double of the initial planning. One of life`s hurdles you just have to jump i guess. Makes me think these restauration projects may not be for me.



The end result i must admit in all fairness is very pleasing as this timecapsule is now returned to it`s full operational glory, thanks to plenty new parts in the engine bay, to match with the rather pretty looks it already came with. Left the case untouched and saved the crystal after a good polish and kept the original crown and pushers fitted with new O-rings. Found some better tritium hands too. And a good condition 1125 bracelet with 633 to make it complete. I think the drop-end chrono hand is much more elegant then the straight version so i gave myself a pass on that one.



Spend some silly money on a nice box and paperwork from that era just because they look so good together, and I imagined this is how it was presented in the shop window back in the day. Yes, i am a Romantic 😀



The long wait did kill some of the thrill of this find from last December unfortunately, several extensions of the promised delivery date blew out the flame similair to that of a summer vacation crush you had in your teens ( y`all remember those don`t you ? ) and after a few month`s back home you wonder what was all the fuzz about ?



So let`s work on bonding again ( is there a Watch therapy Anonymous in the forum ? ) and forget about the price tag and the long wait.
Thanks !

Nice endgame Ron!
And cool box!
You know that waiting is half the fun?
Enjoy your timepiece now!
😀

Thanks Hans !!
And I am not a good waiter i think 😁 .... terrible to be honest 😉 but happy to have this one in the house !

Thank you for your kind words !
As this is my first "colour changed dial" it was difficult to judge for me and eventhough i did find pics of darker dials here and elswere, i did not see a sort of standard for the different phases of colouring and when it could be called tropical. So a stage 1 for Light and stage 5 beeing the dark brown dials shown on speedmaster101 and maybe the more experienced members here in handling these can come to a reference picture chart ?
I agree that mine is light or early stage with some beige/yellow lume on the markers and i find it very difficult to photograph as my Panasonic camera does not pick it up very well.
I tried some on my samsung smartphone just now and the first 2 give a pretty good view of what my eyes see in daylight. The last one is with the white balance changed to enhance the effect a bit for comparrison ( awful picture )



Lume still intact for 2.4 seconds and yes the sweep hand is new but i still prefer it !