All, I am looking to treat myself to a new watch. The only decent watch is my grandfather's 1968 Seamaster Cosmic, which I really treasure. I believe I've settled on a Speedmaster Professional. A few questions for you all: - I believe a "fair" price for a recently serviced Speedy is 2500-3K. Is this fairly accurate? - I am looking to buy a lower end Motm, year of manufacture doesn't interest me too much. Is there a specific model/year range I should focus on? I'm looking to buy at the bottom of the horseshoe (if there is such a thing). Used/new doesn't really matter to me - Is the Speedy pretty durable? I'd be looking for an everyday watch. I definitely wouldn't wear it doing yard work and such things, but I want something which would be much more durable than my Seamaster Cosmic. Thanks everyone
The Speedy is durable. Personally I'd go for a new or early 90's Moonwatch, if you could wait until the budget allows.
The Cal 861 in older pro's is known to be durable so I would assume the later 1861 is too. And your budget looks about right, though you may have to buy at $2,500 and then get it serviced yourself for greater piece of mind. If I were in the market I would try to find something with tritium dial and hands though this is personal preference as I like the way they age over time. Bear in mind that polished cases cannot be returned to their original condition and the hunt is a great part of ownership. Good luck
Well 861's go between 2500 and 10k. I doubt you will find one serviced for 2500. A Speedmaster reduced sells for less but they have service costs that are high.
The Pro, while a more expensive watch is actually surprisingly cheap to maintain, the movement is well known and easy to service with ample parts floating around and no significant issues. Any quality independent watchmaker can take care of a Cal 1861 without much trouble, the piggyback module in the reduced is another story and most will just send it back for exchange with Omega which really costs about the same as an Omega service anyway. Omega have now dropped the reduced as well now in favour of 7750 derived co-axials so they're a dead watch line.