Hey guys, is the average mall technician going to be well-versed in vintage speedmasters? I had a guy look at one and he said it was an obvious fake, but i think it's because he doesn't know about 1970 transitional cases and movements. I have reason to believe it is authentic...
More than likely not. Best thing to do is get clear pictures and description and post on here. There are many helpful forum members well versed in all things Omega .
Mall technicians here in Australia are typically watch battery changers / bracelet pin replacers / shoe repairers / key cutters / engravers all rolled into one (like these guys http://www.misterminit.com.au/) They're almost never going to handle a mechanical watch and have no expertise, tools or experience needed to deal with them. By contrast a full time independent watchmaker may still flip a lot of batteries but has the full skill set and training necessary, they don't however do shoe repairs or key cutting typically.
Unlikely they know much. I had an AD employee tell me my 6542 was a fake as he had never seen a bezel (bakelite) like mine. LOL
Yea I had an Omega AD watchmaker once tell me a Seamaster Piepan was fake because "Omega has never, ever made 14K gold watches". In fairness though their training is on modern stuff and it would take far longer to have them memorise AJTT than to learn how to work on a Calibre 8500.
My sister was once told she needed all new shocks in Las Vegas. After a call to me, guess what, she went with the shocks.
Its real it just has some very new replacement parts and the applied logo dial isn't correct for it, a 32M serial and 69+ should be painted logo, only the earlier '68 transitional has applied and 861.
Thanks Dario, the dial, hands and crystal are replacement. I'm aware that this makes it a Frankenstein, but I'm ok with it if the movement is real. Can anyone else confirm? Could a Chinese copy movement be as realistic as to have a sn, omega logo, and "cal 851" all in the right places? Btw it functions beautifully.
Your watch is fine other than the issues already pointed out. Mall battery flippers are not usually good sources of information on watches, so I would just ignore their comments. Cheers, Al