help needed with 145.022

Hi guys,

I hope you can help me as I'm kind of new to buying vintage watches. I found an old 145.022 from approx. 1970. Looks good for me (although the bracelet and paperwork is missing). Movement No. is 3099xxxx, on ilovemyspeedmaster it says this should be a 145.022-69, but the the engraving says 145.022-71. Also I'm not sure: is that case polished? What price in $ would be acceptable you think?

Cheers,

Bernhard

Thank you so much for your help. It resulted in buying a beautiful brand new 310.30.42.50.01.001 just because I didn't want to make a mistake. And it's a beauty:

As much as I'm pleased with this one, I still (or even more now) want a vintage Speedy. These days I was offered a Cal. 321 which I'm not sure what to make of, but have a look first:



I mean, there are obvious flaws. Doesn't have the DON, the original case back is missing. Seller claims it's a 145.022, but according to ilovemyspeedmaster it should be a 145.012 (movement ° starts with 2499). Case looks a bit to new for me. Dial and movement appear to be ok I guess.
Would you buy this watch? And if so - what would be a good pricing? Thanks for your help. Reading this forum is a pleasure and ended up getting pretty expensive...

You're exactly right I guess. There is so much to be learned about this beautiful watch. Guess I should skip this one 😀

This is great advice.

Sometimes you really get attached and fall hard for the watch that's in front of you -- because it's in front of you. You've had a couple of watches come into consideration over the past few months and that's great, seeing them/trying them on is a great way to get an understanding of what they are like. From the pictures above and from reading into your reactions, I'm not sure you're 100% convinced of any of these vintage examples. Keep reading, keep hunting. Once you see or handle a good vintage example I think you'll be enlightened a bit -- you'll have the reaction of "oh, wow, for something that's 50-60 years old this is really pleasing", etc.

I'm not a 321 Speedy expert, but the watch above as you noted (caseback, bezel) plus a 321 service could set you back ~$5kUSD or more to get it right. Unless this is being offered for cheap (I'm not sure what that would be for a 321 Speedy) and don't care about collectability, I don't think I'd go for it.

321 ...It's a 105.012, a good DON bezel $2k, $2k for a bracelet a case back $1k would be needed, looks like a washed dial (no lume) a good relume $700 a service $600, then you have a nice watch... I would pay $4000 for it, as the case looks good as do the original pushers and crown... hands look a bit newer to me .......as it stands the seller will be asking at least $7k I reckon... he will take £6k as he would be silly not too. After all the work is done it would be a good watch possibly worth $10-12k but you would have to keep a few years to make it worth while.