How I lucked into a Moonwatch

A couple of weeks ago, I was minding my own business with no plans at all to buy a vintage Speedmaster. The NAWCC show here in Houston had just occurred and I picked up a couple of watches. After the show, I picked up a couple of more vintage watches, so I was more than set. I had dropped on watch (Hamilton Fontainebleau Chrono-Matic) off at my go-to watchmaker downtown for a good service. Another of the pickups needed a bit of service, so I decided to take it to a local guy closer to me. He was an older Vietnamese gentleman that had years of experience, and I trusted him with my vintage Seikos and Citizens. I decided to take this old Valjoux 7734 to him.

As he was looking at it before going in the back to give it a closer look, he mentioned a watch he had for sale. I heard "Omega Seamaster" and I nodded to be polite, but wasn't really interested as I was full of "new" vintage watches. When he went into the back I took a quick look around and I saw and old Speedmaster for sale in an old Omega box. It was labeled at "1969 Omega Speedmaster" and I could tell it was old, and looked to have a vintage bracelet. Also, the price was very interesting. I haven't looked at vintage Speedmasters in years, though I did go through a phase back in the Timezone years with Chuck Maddox learning everything I could back then. However, I bought a new Speedmaster 3570.50 in 2000 and a friend flew it on the space shuttle Atlantis to the early International Space Station, so I was set for my "valuable" Speedmaster.

When the watchmaker returned, I asked (as calmly as I could) if I could see the Speedmaster. He offered to open it up, and when he did, I could see it was a 321. It also had a vintage flat link Omega bracelet, which I knew could also add to the value. He said he had serviced it and it was running great. I could see it had a new (current) bezel but I was willing to overlook for his price. I nodded and hmmm'd and haw'd, and he immediately dropped the price even further (I hadn't even offered to buy it yet). Once he did, I whipped out my wallet and bought it straight away. I didn't know if this was a frankenwatch or what, but I knew the movement and bracelet along, along with the tritium dial and non-moonwatch caseback were enough to pay me back even if it was.

So off I went home with my new toy to start doing proper research to see what I had. (Yes, I know I had it backwards, but for the price, it was more than worth the gamble.) I could see from the movement number, and caseback and the bracelet number that it all dated to around 1966-67. I didn't get the number inside the caseback so I went back the next day for him to open it back up for pictures. There I saw it was a 105.012-65. Even the number on the box seemed to fit. All the pieces (watch movement, dial type, case, bracelet, box) seemed to be correct for the 1966-67 time frame. I mentioned the new bezel to him and he proudly said "oh yes, I switched that out. The old one was scratched up." I about died. 😮 I asked if he had the old bezel and he said yes, I could have it. I asked if he minded swapping the old bezel back on and he didn't really understand why, but agreed to. So now it looks like everything except the service crown is correct (original?) and I lucked into it.

Through this entire episode, I obviously got to know him much better and we talked watched and his history in the area. He's been here since the 80s and has worked with several NASA people during that time. He was telling me about a clock he serviced for Gene Kranz (a $30k clock) and Gene gave him an autographed copy of his book. Oh, and to top it off, he told me that Victor Glover (who just flew on Artemis 2) told him he was going to buy the Speedmaster, but never came back. He said "I called Victor, but he never returne my calls so I sold it to you." 😁

After looking at the watch and wearing it for a few days, I decided to send it off to have the bracelet restored. It had been polished to death (by him, I'm afraid) such that it was completely polished all around, no brushed features at all. I considered keeping it as is, but I figured the over polishing had already stripped enough value that having it rebrushed wasn't going to drop it any further. Plus, I plan to wear this watch and I'd prefer it looking more like it looked originally. I also saw tritium dust on the dial and I wanted that properly cleaned so it didn't cause any harm to the movement. Next, from my pictures, I could see there were some marks on the movement from previous incursions (I don't think my watchmaker did these) and I wanted a second opinion on the servicing. Finally, the case has been well used and has some funky polishing/brushing marks on it. I can't tell it those are ham-fisted attempts at cleaning it up, or just old polishing/knocks/scrapes. I'm getting a second opinion on that as well.

So, on to the pictures.

P9090167 by Russ, on Flickr

P9090183 by Russ, on Flickr

P9090178 by Russ, on Flickr

P9090177 by Russ, on Flickr

P9090176 by Russ, on Flickr

P9090173 by Russ, on Flickr

P9090179 by Russ, on Flickr

P9150027 by Russ, on Flickr

Other than his black ink service mark, I saw one other mark from service but couldn't tell the date or what it meant.
P9090146 by Russ, on Flickr

The movement looks okay but you can see some scratches and other signs of damage, so I want to fully understand those
P9090148 by Russ, on Flickr

You can see the tritium dust on the dial.
P9090201 by Russ, on Flickr

Here's a family portrait of my Speedmasters.
P9150018 by Russ, on Flickr

Once the watch is returned, I'll post an update.

Thank you for attending my TED Talk. 😆

This is how it always starts for me. But I haven't gotten as lucky as this.

Great story. Great find. Thanks for sharing.

P.S., if you have any more friends willing to take watches up to space, I have a few Speedy's I need to send you.

Oh wow, I just love these stories!! There's nothing better than buying a great priced watch unexpectedly out of the back of the shop/safe/cardboard boxes.....I got deja vu goosebumps reading this 😀

I figure I paid about half of what I could sell it for right now, based on what I'm seeing online.

I was thinking more about this. I asked the watchmaker where he got the watch and he said it came from someone in Galveston, which is about 30 miles from the Johnson Space Center. Being that it was sold locally, I'm wondering if there is a JSC connection. Not that it's government property, but along the lines of Grandpa or Dad worked at JSC on Apollo and knew the astronauts were wearing this watch and so they went and bought one themselves. Over time, it went into the sock drawer and then Grandpa/Dad passed away. Kids inherit it and are looking to get rid of "stuff" and figure the old watch might be worth something. They look for a local watch/clock shop and find my watchmaker. He gives them a grand (or more, I'm guessing) and they think "wow, this 50 year old watch that cost a couple of hundred dollars just got me a thousand dollars. Sweet!"

The watchmaker knows its a Speedmaster and the NASA connection, but he's not into collecting and doesn't know the minutiae of Omega Speedmasters, so he marks it up 2x-3x. Then I come along and he knocks 20+% off his price (without me even asking) because he still doubled his money, or better.

I'm going to ask him if he'll reach out to the seller and see if they can provide anymore backstory. Who knows? If I hadn't mentioned the new bezel, I'd never have the original bezel back on the watch. Maybe there's more to this.

Yeah, I was flying high after finding this, for sure. I started to buy a lottery ticket on the way home. 🤣

I’d say it’s at least plausible. And given the age of the watch there was no markting about the watch’s connection to nasa or space yet so something else would have to influence the buyers decision.

Lovely story and a great watch to catch "minding your own business' 😀