I was kind of nervous with ordering this watch. The pictures of the watch were not great, but the seller had a good story and was legit based on the reputation. Today I picked up the package at the address where the mail man left my watch. And look what I found.... In my opinion one of the most beautiful Omega's around; the legendary 145.023 a.k.a the Anankin Skywalker. And what a beauty it is. Dial is one of the best I have ever seen on one. The white of the bezel is really white. No leaking rubber gasket. Main hands are like new, chrono hands are a bit worn... But worn the way I like it. There are some small dents between the 6 and 7 o'clock. And the great thing is, the plastic cover on caseback was still on it. Clearly the watch didn't must wear time. At first I was a little bit afraid it would have been huge on my wrist. But actually it is not that bad. I like some weight on it, and I already own a Speedmaster MK II which is not very small either. Only small improvement would be to replace the NATO strap with a steel bracelet. That would also decrease the hight a bit (3mm at least). Now come the pictures:
Nice pick up! I like the faded chrono hands and IMHO it will look much better on a 1171. Theses can be found for a couple hundred € all over the place.
I bought a mesh for my Ploprof 600 and wanted to like it, but I think I must have had it on for all of about 20 seconds max, realizing immediately that the look was just not for me. It felt way too shiny and quite heavy. This I much prefer, understated and light weight.
Congratulations! That's amazing. Truly amazing... Absolutely. You definitely pull it off. Out of interest, how big is your wrist?
Looks really cool indeed. He must have been hammering nails in with it to get that case marked!, these (tungsten) cases are incredible, I doubt you'll be able to polish anything out on it.
After one day wearing this one I am still very happy with my watch. But I noticed the so called 'hour creep' yesterday evening; the chrono hour hand is running though the chrono has not been activated. It sucks but the seller told me he shipped it with all functions working and I believe him. So I guess I have to live with it until it will get serviced. Too bad, but it can happen and it's not a real deal breaker money wise, to have it fixed I believe. The outline of my wrist is just a little under 18 cm. Quite small. Don't get me wrong, I still think the watch is huge. But I think I can pull it off indeed. It's a huge chunk on my wrist but I like it. People will notice it. But it would be a shame to hide this beauty. The weight of it is not bad, it's not more noticeable than my Speedmaster Mark II. I was searching around for straps and bracelets. Since I wanted the watch to be as original as possible I was doing my research. But actually there is not a lot to find about these watches. Of course there are the fan sites with all the history about them. But I have never been able to verify with what bracelet it was originally shipped with. My guess is it was the 1166/171. Is there anyone around here with more information about this? I cannot find a 1166/171 for sale. So now I was thinking thinking about going for a 1162/172 or a mesh one. Not quite sure. Can anyone tell how it works with the 1171 bracelet? I only see those coming with 633 end links. But those end links are not suited for this watch. And I cannot find end links that would work on my watch (171 or 172 end links). All the help is much appreciated. Regards, Maarten
Here is my Bucherer version on the mesh: I think it looks/feels better on the 1162/172. As has been stated before, it's pretty heavy on the mesh.
Hmm, I could have made a mistake when I said 1171, could well be an 1162. I'll check later and let you know.
Here it is on the 1162: It's more comfortable on the right wrist because it is so wide. Edit - I know you may not like it, but I think the NATO really is the most comfortable of all of the choices. I just tried it on myself.
I am not going to polish the case. I am fine with the watch as it is now. It's a 40 year old watch. It would be weird to have no battle scars at all. How he did it, the story doesn't tell
My priority now is to first acquire an original steel Omega bracelet that fits. Could be the 1162. Or perhaps the 1171 but that one seems to have the wrong end links. Since I am not sure if I like a mesh bracelet on it, I could order a cheap, non-Omega, mash bracelet and see how it looks before I order a genuine Omega. Anyone of you ever had to fix the hour creeping issue? Any estimation on the costs to fix it?
And is there perhaps someone around who has some spare 171 or 172 end links I might buy from him/her?