MarkII Project Racing Thread

eugeneandresson

Some time last year I was absentmindedly browsing Chrono 24, and the following watch caught my attention...

This was the best of the 3 pictures that were there. Whats wrong with it you may ask? Well, firstly, just wot-the-'ell is that bracelet 😲 ?! Secondly (and most off-putting) ... it had been photographed on (and thus had lots of contact with) that old urine-trap toilet mat 🤮 It appeared to be beaten half to death, however, the hour and minute hands are the less common 'exotic racing' variants found on the stupidly expensive exotic racing speedmasters, the lume appears clean (but its hard to tell much from these low res blurry pics), there appear to be no chipped/destroyed paint near the stems of any of the hands...and the fade of the hands is very appealing. It was a private seller in Norway, and he was asking about half of the going rate. Up until that date, I had never bought a watch on C24, but this one was promising, and whilst not cheap, much cheaper than anything I had seen. Thus for the princely sum of 1800USD (1615CHF), it became mine.

This is what arrived.

Don't worry, I tossed the bracelet as soon as I arrived home (full of nasty cheese it was too 🤮) and went for a shower. The case has all factory finishes present, but has clearly had a good life. But the prize is this...

Absolutely fabulous.

It was nice to wear the MarkII for a day or two...and the 'funky' case suited my wrist well...it will, however, never be a desirable watch with this case in this condition, and even a new crystal would have still leave a beat case behind. Still, a great value proposition with a bracelet. Now I hear you thinking 'refinish that case'...but for some reason that goes against my grain. I tried hunting a homogeneous bracelet to match the case...these are not easy to find, and I still have a WTB here...

Some time later the optimal solution presented itself on eBay...

It was advertised as a 145.022-69 case (with crystal, pushers, caseback)...but I did my due diligence on the case, and to me it looks more like a 145.012 case, with factory finishes present, in a nice and acceptable (to my standards) vintage condition (i.e. what I would expect from a 60's watch, no polishing). Super useful parts to have in the right circumstance...and another 1800USD later it became mine.

My parts bin already had a good DON and a mint (but built up by me) 1039/516 which still awaits a coherent SM300 from 1967/8, both from some years ago, and long story short, my MarkII is finally 'fixed' to the watch I (and every one who has a soft-spot for a Speedy) secretly lust after, but will never spend 50+k on ... for the princely sum of 2x1800USD, a dust-cap and movement-holder and a service (thanks to Romain for doing a great job again), and some valuable parts that were just languishing (I mean, that bezel is worth almost as much as the rest of the head)...

I am absolutely thrilled with this. Bang for buck ratio is up there imho. It looks like my dream watch...with an 'uber-rare and elusive double-signed exotic dial' from the long gone super-trendy fashion-funk-house 'Mark Zwei' ('MarkII' for short and in English) that was on the Bahnhofstrasse of all Switzerlands major cities in the 60's, but alas that disappeared like many in the preceding years ...😗... no harm in dreaming right?

I don't include the value of the bezel and bracelet into this project, as they were not part of the project acquisitions and I already had them, and I may at some point install a cheaper bezel and use these parts on more 'worthy' watches, but for now they give immense pleasure being part of what is essentially a (relatively) very cheap and aesthetically coherent 60's exotic racing Speedy (project) with all-60s/early-70s parts (bar the movement holder and dust cap). And excuse my french, but zero-craps given about the 'double-signed' dial...emperors new clothes 😗

Some more pics for viewing pleasure:

The case

Caseback is well worn, but hippocampus present. Looks like perhaps someone got frisky with a cape-cod.

Those who have studied Speedmaster cases will recognize the slightly off-plane very-fine factory brushing from the 60s/70s. Lots of micro dings...

Dial/hands/fade/lume are just great. Patina is a match, some lume cracking on the hour...that I doesn’t bother me and I keep it as is for a bit more authenticity (its been stabilized at service).

I love the way the light plays with the orange and grey between shadow and direct light, and different times of the day...

All that aside : I'd still love a top-condition MarkII racing ... haven't seen a nice set for sale for many years, and I was about 30s too late (was #2 on the list of responders to the last on I saw FS) ... that was in about 2018.

Anyone else care to share their racing project?

Thanks OF for this space.

john_coburg

I had a go at recasing a Mk II into a Pro case a few years ago, so thought i might as well add it to the collection here, which i think makes 14?
Annoyingly, the/a previous owner appears to try to have erased the 'Mark II' lettering, and made a bit of a botch of it, which is a shame. Other than that, i think it looks great, particularly with the 'thin' (rather than Mk II) hands, which i don't really understand? What were these hands doing in a Mk II originally? I also thought i should relume them, as i'm never a fan of this 'blackened' lume, even if it is typically a good sign of authenticity.

I have included a photo of the Mk II case it came from, for reference. The donor Pro case was an old -74 off eBay for £750, which had an interesting long-indices dial with it.
I think by the time i'd sold the Mk II with a replaced black dial and had Simon Freese do all the hard work, the whole project cost me £3k, all-in. Not too bad.

I actually had a go a year earlier, with the same case, but a different Mk II dial. This one had Mk II hands, and the lume was 'washed'...so didn't look as good. i think i improved on this earlier attempt.