Hi just saw an omega Speedmaster 145.022 with some extra marking on side of the case . The back has some dim marking and only AF is visible. Wondering , if the Speedmaster was ever issued to any airforce in the world , specially African air forces ? Regards
Wouldn't that be the Apollo 20th LE of which there were several batches..? the first 1000 just had the 'number/2000' engraved and the second had 'number/2000 Apollo XI 1969' engraved.
Right - except all were "xxxx/2000 Apollo XI 1969" no? Or are you sure the first thousand only had the number. Because it'd be real easy to engrave a number on an old 145.022 and call it an LE.... (even though these aren't worth much more than one)
I was just digging for info. I'm pretty sure that the first 1000 were missing the 'Apollo XI 1969' part of the inscription. I considered one last year and found some info to that effect, but I can't seem to find it now. Will look more when I have more time (and have mwo in front of me). I think these also typically came on the 1450 bracelet. Edit: agree it would be easy to fake. Not sure how you could verify, maybe by movement number and access to Omega's Intranet or whatever it's called..
Thanks for the research guys . The movement serial number for this one starts with 31xxxxxxx meaning seventies and is not with DON Bazel ........ The engravings are very clean and doesn't appear to be fake or redone. How about the case backs for these limited editions?
This is probably the anniversary watch coz the guy found the 48xxxxx serial number movement which was fitted in some other watch ...
I would expect the 20th LE to have a 48M serial probably, since those were the serial ranges of Speedmasters in the '89-'90 period. If it has a 31M serial, I'd expect it to be a 145.022-71 probably.
I have the third version (with Apollo XI 1969 engraving, but no LE numbering) and it's in the 48M serial number range.