Community Stories

Gray Dial Speedmasters

perenowell
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Dear OF members,

I just purchased a very - very - special watch and I feel that I have to share it with you. Because I know it's rare and because I hope you will share with me your knowledge about these ones... There is still a lot to learn about them.

For the little story, this watch popped out on a local auction website. I obviously noticed it, and it was time for a classic review.

Pros: Super cool reference 105.002-62, Strongly tropical, right serial, clean movement, right pushers
Cons : maybe too tropical, hands looked too short, the don had a long life, no bracelet, not many informations on the case, wrong crown and cristal, no EoA...
Conclusion : the asking price is way too expensive IMO.

That was discussed a bit here. End of story for me but @Seaborg (thanks mate!) came with a new information I didn't have at the moment... It's a grey dial. And that's when everything went "wrong" 😀

I had to check again knowing that.
Pros: Super cool reference 105.002-62, Super rare dial and tropical, right hands, right serial, clean movement, right pushers...
Edit : maybe a not so clean movement after all.
Cons : the don had a long life, no bracelet, not many informations on the case, wrong crown and cristal, no EoA...
I have to see the dial in person to know if it's good or not.

I decided to give it a shot and I contacted the seller. The seller being in Switzerland too, it helped a lot to discuss. He gave me more informations and pictures, and my interest went bigger and bigger..

A couple of days later, I saw the watch on C24 for almost half the price... Was it a mistake ? I decided to take my chance and to make an offer. we agreed on a price and to meet : For this kind of money, it's better to see the watch.

So meeting in Zürich. And the least that I can say is that it's... Crazy. just crazy. I wanted it in a second. Love at first sight. 🥰

It's almost impossible to make a decent picture of this dial : Grey in the shadow. caramel in a regular light. Gold in the sun. it's just incredible.
And good other surprises : the bezel has some blue reflections in the sun, and the case looks to be in a good condition!

I hope you'll like it and if you have one or knowledge about them (pictures, serial, where it has been delivered, everything!) , please share and make this thread live!

Here are my first pictures!

IMGP4108.JPG IMGP4109.JPG IMG_3348.jpg IMG_3349.jpg IMG_3395.jpg IMG_3374.jpg IMGP4111.JPG IMG_3402.jpg
Edited:
 
perenowell
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bags1971 bags1971
The old paperclip I see 😀

I saw that yes. 😵‍💫
It will need some time with my watchmaker to make it right I guess! 😀
 
padders
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I am less positive towards that I am sorry to say. The lume looks to have been removed (see the halos round the plots) and while it may be a heavily patinated matt grey dial, as seen on SP101 and therefore vanishingly rare, it may also be a heavily water damaged or aggressively cleaned std black dial. I am leaning towards the latter but perhaps one of the big Speedy hitters might want to make comment. It is not unattractive but the movement condition just reinforces the suspicion in my mind.
Edited:
 
Slevin kelevra
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Looks like a bit of a mess to me.Dial is not attractive and the movement is very suspect. Paperclip and strange engravings next to the pushers.
 
Pvt-Public
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Slevin kelevra Slevin kelevra
strange engravings next to the pushers.
Perhaps the extremely rare (never been seen before) Roswell edition of the very first watch in space. ::stirthepot::🤦
 
perenowell
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padders padders
I am less positive towards that I am sorry to say. The lume looks to have been removed and while it may be a heavily patinated matt grey dial (as seen on SP101) and therefore vanishingly rare, it may also be a heavily water damaged or cleaned std black dial. I am leaning towards the latter but perhaps one of the big Speedy hitters might want to make comment. It is not unattractive but the movement mismatch and condition just reinforces the suspicion in my mind.

No worries.

There is indeed some lume missing on some indexes , but not everywhere.
I'm sure it's not a standard dial but a grey dial, because of the indexes / step proportion or the color / reflection. It's really different.

About the mouvement, yeah it had a good life and was badly maintained. but it can be fix...
 
watchyouwant
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Only you can tell, what it is. Having it in your hand. From the pictures provided , I can not see the desired gray dial. They age different. Have a closer look at the grainy structure of the dial in the lower half of the dial. Every step in that dial, incl. the subdial rims, show some kind of mechanical abrasion. Rather Man made. The rest is subjectiv. I'd think, this dial was washed and relumed. But, pics. are not detailed enough. It all comes down to price and liking.Good watch to wear. Not sure, what that paperclip in the movement tells me about the level of care.... Enjoy it for what it is. The bezel could be replaced and this one preserved. That blueish colour is original and quite rare.....
 
Seaborg
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This watch is an amazing, über rare reference and even more scarce dial.
Killer watch.
Contrats buddy
 
padders
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perenowell perenowell
No worries.

There is indeed some lume missing on some indexes , but not everywhere.
I'm sure it's not a standard dial but a grey dial, because of the indexes / step proportion or the color / reflection. It's really different.

About the mouvement, yeah it had a good life and was badly maintained. but it can be fix...
One positive thing, I initially said 'movement mismatch and condition', I retracted the mismatch part that since I realised the serial was in range so that at least shouldn't be a concern,
 
perenowell
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Slevin kelevra Slevin kelevra
Looks like a bit of a mess to me.Dial is not attractive and the movement is very suspect. Paperclip and strange engravings next to the pushers.

Dial is not attractive because you didn't have the watch in your hand... As I said, impossible to make a decent pictures of it.
The engraving... Well who really cares? It's clearly not a museum condition but it can be fixed easily.
 
perenowell
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watchyouwant watchyouwant
Only you can tell, what it is. Having it in your hand. From the pictures provided , I can not see the desired gray dial. They age different. Have a closer look at the grainy structure of the dial in the lower half of the dial. Every step in that dial, incl. the subdial rims, show some kind of mechanical abrasion. Rather Man made. The rest is subjectiv. I'd think, this dial was washed and relumed. But, pics. are not detailed enough. It all comes down to price and liking.Good watch to wear. Not sure, what that paperclip in the movement tells me about the level of care.... Enjoy it for what it is. The bezel could be replaced and this one preserved. That blueish colour is original and quite rare.....

For what I saw on the other grey dial, the "abrasion" of the step or subdials is an usual deterioration. I really don't think it's man made.
This one for example.
Capture d’écran 2022-07-07 à 13.08.17.png


About the aging, I saw 3 105.002 with a strong patina like the one sold by watchfid recently.
https://www.watchfid.com/watches/omega-speedmaster-105-002-62/

About the relume, I don't think it has been. The lume is partially missing and what's left react as it should. And this degradation can be seen on other dials too.

They are not much grey dial outside, and they bring some questions. It would be nice to have other inputs here to feed the thread.
 
Slevin kelevra
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perenowell perenowell
Dial is not attractive because you didn't have the watch in your hand... As I said, impossible to make a decent pictures of it.
The engraving... Well who really cares? It's clearly not a museum condition but it can be fixed easily.
As long as you like it, that is the main thing buddy.
 
td69
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Congratulations! Indeed a blue/grey dial. I too have observed quite a handful of 105.002 in this dial configuration. Personally the issue with the movement in this watch wouldn't stop me from buying it.
 
watchyouwant
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perenowell perenowell
For what I saw on the other grey dial, the "abrasion" of the step or subdials is an usual deterioration. I really don't think it's man made.
This one for example.
Capture d’écran 2022-07-07 à 13.08.17.png


About the aging, I saw 3 105.002 with a strong patina like the one sold by watchfid recently.
https://www.watchfid.com/watches/omega-speedmaster-105-002-62/

About the relume, I don't think it has been. The lume is partially missing and what's left react as it should. And this degradation can be seen on other dials too.

They are not much grey dial outside, and they bring some questions. It would be nice to have other inputs here to feed the thread.

The Watchfid example? That is the most questionable " grey" dial example, I've seen. You talk about a business model, which Watchfid invented. That is like every other dealer around.
 
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