Apollo 11 50th Anniversary...here's the deal
Curious if anyone has seen or heard about any good quality fakes yet. I came home last night and low and behold my wife presented me with a new 50th anniversary Speedmaster she purchased!!! I was immediately nervous about the deal for her as she trusts everyone, me, not so much.
The fancy white box came within, what looks like the original cardboard outer box with bar coding actual pricing stickers in Euros and looks legit as the original Omega ship box. On the inside everything was there, excluding warranty cards, however this was stated up front in the ad. I get that anything can be copied and faked, it's been done for centuries. Back to the watch. As advertised the watched appeared to be 100% new. There was also a cash purchase receipt (also totally legit looking) from watches of Switzerland in London, dated about a month ago. My obvious reaction was that this was a grey market flip. Although I have two other Omega's from AD's, I was mostly OK with this as the Apollo 11 moon landing has a really special meaning for both of us and this will be a "wearer". When I queried my wife about things she stated the seller explained the cards became missing during a shipment which to me was obvious BS. Why didn't he just say it's gray market? Liability of some sort? Maybe true watch guys just know this to be the case.
The seller is a trusted seller with 5 stars on Chrono 24 with 25 previous sales and plenty of current listings for what that's worth.
I carefully inspected this watch and I'm no playah' in the watch game but I have researched and read a lot over the years and have a good eye for detail. I can say this watch looks spectacular. The movement looks spot on, the chrono's are perfectly synched. The special edition number matches the one in the included commemerative booklet, the serial number is in the right place on the lug, and matches the sticker on the watch back and the original receipt from watches of Switzerland. Everything is crisp as hell, It has the proper Omega raised symbol. It "feels" right.
There are two outstanding reviews on line with super high def pics that I used to help me examine the watch. The detail in the "Buzz" graphic, including the dark colored raised areas are spot on. I used a jewelers glass to verify what I saw on watch 0/6969 (in the review) and my watch and everything was seemingly perfect. It would also seem that the laser etched footprint would be really tough to hack. Last, the luminesence is crisp and bright.
The only two things I can think of are whether Omega will verify the serial number and the special edition number match which really doesn't prove a whole lot and whether I want to have a professional open the case. The later will render it un-returnable but at least provide me with some fraud ammo with the card company.
Anyway, I love the watch, and I feel like a dick being so nervous about a present that came from the heart.
Purposely didn't post the pics at this point but will tomorrow with some good natural light. Again, if this is a fake it's pretty amazing.
I apologize in advance if this was inappropriate to post without pics right away
Thoughts on this would be most appreciated...
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