This just ended on eBay. I was watching, thinking at under $4k it's potentially a reasonable buy. After all, it has no bezel, no lume and is filthy. Surely this won't hit the heights as it'll need at least $1500 for a bezel, $500 for a full service and some parts, plus $150 for a relume

Well it's just finished for over $5600! Going on my restoration costs above, that's a total of just under $8k, for a -67 which will never be 'good' and may have other movement issues which are expensive to fix. At this price I can only see three possibilities:

1. Someone has a nice bezel in their parts box and is gambling that the lume is still present and the pictures were just harsh.

2. Someone is going to add a rough DoN or a modern decimal bezel, have it relumed and either use it as a daily driver or flip it to a newb.

3. This is a perfectly reasonable price for a Speedmaster nowadays and I need to accept that prices have changed!!


https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/253417433647

 

Does the dial appear a bit blue?

 

It looks as black as can be to me. However, the pics are very white, which may account for the blue tinge on some images. I wonder if the buyer satisfied themselves that the lume is pale yet present and the pictures just gave the impression of white markers?

I've bought Speedmasters like this in the past as a bit of a gamble. I couldn't justify this one at the price it went for, but I'd be very interested to see better pictures of it. Hopefully someone's gamble paid off.

 

I have very limited experience but in the time I have been watching prices, not just on Speedmasters, prices are UP!
Any or all 3 of the scenarios you describe are possible, but I think the most likely is that there has been a shift in the market.

Vintage 60's Seamaster and Seamaster DeVille prices are up around 20%-30% in the 8 months or so I have been tracking them.
Vintage Seiko prices are up the same or more in less than a year.

 

I don't think it's blue and the minute markers reach the step, so missing a key characteristic of blue dials.

Looking at it the other way around, and lets say,

1000 for the dial
2000 for the case
2500 for the movement
500 for the hands

??? Maybe I'm being generous, but you get pretty close to 5600 for VAP...

 

How much is a broken pusher worth?

 

If the spring is intact, about $6 by my reckoning..

 

The other thing that might be happening is that the influx of new collectors, who maybe don't have enough confidence in their ability to spot the difference between a good original and a good franken, are betting that a knackered old barn find is at least all original on the grounds that a faker would do a better job of tarting it up before selling.

 

Maybe this helped:

http://speedmaster101.com/category/blog/

 

It doesn't look like would get money back as parts and questions on value once restored.

4th possibility.....paid too much

 

I would far rather have paid US$15K for the 2998 in the second article than US$5.6K for the one in the OP. I like that 2998.

 

That's a very informative review as well on the 2998!!

 

You'd never get it back trying to restore it, but you might by breaking it up.

 

500??? for the hands? Fakk my old boots @oddboy ! I like Generous! Generous sounds good to me!

Thankyou for throwing these little horological gems my way So it raises the question in my mind:
How much would these little bassteddz from the early 1970's be worth? Oh and there is an early 1970's crown in there as well.
They're doing 'four fiths of fakk all' sitting around in this STS UK. service case.

 

I could use that set of hands

 

Hello mate. Thankyou for your post. I wasn't actually offering them for sale, I was asking @oddboy his opinion on their value. I will PM you as this ain't the Private Sales Forum. I don't want the 'mods' chewing my bollocks off. They get a bit 'fakkin lively' if we don't keep to the rules.

 

I Agree, we better behave

 

Yeah you could be right. The thing is William knows what to look for!

 

Well @nonuffinkbloke, those hands are interesting. If you look closely at the minute hand you'll see that it's not the same as the one thats on your watch. In other words, those don't look like original speedmaster hands. They still have some value being vintage and looking to be original, but I might put them closer to $100-200 (USD). The crown has some value, but I would hang onto it for another few years. Today, maybe $100-200 for the crown... but to be honest, I've never sought one of those 70s crowns out so not super familiar with pricing for them.

Edit just to say, the hour and seconds hand would probably fetch more.. If let go separately, you might collected 300 or so.. Hard to say. If you don't intend to keep them, through up a FS listing with a price and see what the market says. We all believe you're here for more than peddling your dear old da's old ticker at this point .

 

Is this really about collecting and collectors, or simple profit seeking lol ...

Will be increasingly difficult and quite a chore, more than now, to find original watches that are not hacked and put together from spares....