OK that's officially creepy. It looks original, high quality case, bracelet, case back etc.
Omega QC was really sloppy on this one.
So the print screen is right, but the paint used is wrong. The moon uses earth blue paint and mars uses moon green paint. Possibly they ran out the red/ orange color when printing this one .

 

Old Speedmasters fade to chocolate. New Speedmaster E-M-M's must fade too, and pretty quickly from that picture.

 

That's just fading. If you put that watch in the window of a sunny store for prolonged periods without a UV filtering layer on the window that will happen.

 

Are you sure? The earth blue color and moon incorrect blue color doesn't look like fading at all.

 

Hello all,

As usual, when researching stuff about watches this forum always provides great info and debate. A very good friend of mine gave me his Speedmaster to have it serviced as doesn't know any watchmakers. His watch was never serviced since he purchased it brand new at an AD in Manchester UK in 2005-2006 (he's can't remember the exact year). It seems to coincide with the edition number #3883. I have scoured the internet for similar examples of this dial and I can only conclude that it's not one that has faded but a completely different dial than the "From Moon to Mars" examples seen everywhere. (Blemishes on dial caused by distortion from heavily scratched crystal).


Pic borrowed from the internet
Obviously I am talking about the hour totalizer and minute totalizer sub dials. On the regular dials, the hour totalizer sub dial is a greyish blue and and the Mars subdial is red. On his watch, the hour totalizer subdial is a much deeper blue and the Mars subdial looks like somebody here put it...like Neptune! It's a totally different subdial. We can't even say it's a faded version of the red Mars sub dial. I thought I would revive this post for further debate and to see if anybody else found out anything new about these dials.

Cheers,

 

I haven't read most of the comments after this one, but from a photography perspective- this could also be an instance of poor white balance. Red in particular is a difficult color to accurately represent (having shot cars this was a nightmare)

If you look at the bracelet in photo 1 and 2, you can see the color temperature is off- 2 is slightly "warmer" than the omega press image. Color saturation, monitor calibration, and a lot of other things play into stuff like this - the only TRUE way to find out if there really are this many variances in QC with dial colors is to get a few examples and compare them with your own eyes, under daylight balanced light bulbs.

 

I agree with you on the red Mars configuration but the dial on my friend's watch can't be explained by photographic parameters. It's completely different. I can say that the picture I took this morning is bang on with the watch "in the flesh"

Cheers

 

A gtg of moon to mars speedy? .....not sexy enough to warrant high turn out

 

Thanks for your informative comment. I was just hoping to shed some light on this little mystery. Sex appeal or taste wasn't really on the table

Cheers,

 

The closest available guesses to your friend's watch phenomenon: 1. Misprint dial or 2. Color change due to sun exposure. Since I doubt Omega qc passed green mars, then exposure to sun might be the culprit. It showed paint used in this dial is lower in quality.....

 

Geez...I didn't think I was going to get hate mail as a result of this?! I was just asking for an obejctive and INTELLIGENT comment. This model isn't my cup of tee either but my friend loves it and asked me to take care of it and inquire about it. I was most happy to oblige. I am quite surprised that out of 3 replies, 2 came from the Mensa group.

 

Thanks for the comment. My watchmaker just had a very close look and he thinks that there might have been a few QC officers under the influence! He says the colors are way too crisp viewed under a loupe to be the result of sun exposure. Since this watch spent most of it's time in Yorkshire UK, I doubt the sun is the culprit!

Thanks!

 

haha...my thoughts exactly.

 

Or perhaps chemical reaction with a batch of bad varnish over time?

 

What's the Mensa group?

 

Mensa, the high IQ society--->> https://www.mensa.org/

Most OF members would no doubt qualify if they bothered to apply, excluding those who recently found/inherited/bought/made this really nice old Omega what is it and what is it worth and does anyone want to buy it?

My two cents on the OP's watch... an issue with the dial coating that has caused it to fade over time. Who knows why? I don't.