Well that was certainly unexpected. Not going to lie if I saw that on somebodys wrist my first thought would be it's some crazy fake. As an aside I saw a fake IWC the other day, the rotor had the expected IWC logo on it, but also loads of small Omega logos underneath
Knowing them, they will ask for a gazillion dollars for it and people would still buy. Still such a nice watch. [emoji22]
Well...Nice watch though with any documented Cartier provenance,papers or so... that is just the word Cartier put on the dial ...at least to my eyes...
Are there more photographs? MWO says this about the BA145.022: There are two main typographical styles in this model. The first is identical to that of the A2 dials fitted to the CK2915 watches. The second version follows the style of the C1 dials. Note, however, a third variant with the same typography as the C4 dials of the 1980s. It is most likely a replacement dial. The O looks round to me, not oval while the E has the lower bar. If the O is oval, that would point to the dial being original to the 1969 watch but if it is round, then the typography doesn't fit the description of any of the original dials. Finally, the "Cartier" looks off-centre to my eyes. So, unique dial or re-dial? I'm edging towards re-dial based on the one photo but it's not clear enough for me to be sure enough to offer that as an opinion.
It's fully plausible to think this watch was sold at a Cartier store. It's was a high end Omega and the different stores did not become one entity until 1979. If someone had one of these I highly doubt they would have added it later. Cartier was well known to sell and sign Rolex watches, one of the stores could easily have sold this Omega. What is interesting is the non standard Cartier Font... quite pretty on this one in a retro futuristic was which fits the time period. The Cartier sign Rolex also have a non standard font on them for reference with a highly embellished "C"
Because Rolex And Omega have denied marking the dials as such. Because they are often inferior quality, off centre, non matching font. Becausd the retailers have admitted marking the dials themselves.
Pretty common knowledge that Tiffany and Cartier did it afterwards to to Rolex. Meister did it to Omegas.
The same watch appeared recently for sale on rolexforums for a steep +100k$! Appears to be number 50. Plenty of pictures available. https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=583945.
We’ve got a ongoing discussion here. https://omegaforums.net/threads/cartier-speedmaster-at-hq-milton.70312/