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New vintage Ultraman for sale

boogedyboo
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I think it is a good time for these vintage Ultramans to come out of the woodwork, what with the renewed interest due to the ST2.

The owners probably think they now have access to a larger pool of potential buyers.
 
simonsays
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As was established in an earlier thread, the entire watch is based on the orange hand. That second hand damage would scare me off as a prospective buyer. It looks like it has been removed and replaced. If you are spending £10k on a hand you better make sure its a good one. That one rings alarm bells.
 
P
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simonsays simonsays
As was established in an earlier thread, the entire watch is based on the orange hand. That second hand damage would scare me off as a prospective buyer. It looks like it has been removed and replaced. If you are spending £10k on a hand you better make sure its a good one. That one rings alarm bells.
The watch is just serviced. Kind of healthy in a way that it is not 100% perfect when the rest of it also look used. Honest rather than fishy in my world.
 
simonsays
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P PerJ
The watch is just serviced. Kind of healthy in a way that it is not 100% perfect when the rest of it also look used. Honest rather than fishy in my world.

I don't get my watches back with damaged hands after a service. I would have expected that to have been replaced with a new hand rather than refitted if it was a reputable service. Given the nature of these Ultraman watches, hand damage is a serious problem for me, and an indicator of tampering. I would not be buying without good and believable provenance from the original owner. That would be more valuable and more important than the Extract.
 
tyrantlizardrex
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guaranteed.rohu guaranteed.rohu
Wow suddenly 3 of the 50 total original ultramans are up for sale at the same time ha ha...

Until the time that Omega provides evidence that only 50 of these watches were produced, can we please stop saying there were 50?

Perpetuating myths (that's stories without 100% fact behind them) does this hobby and the people in it, absolutely no good.
 
eugeneandresson
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simonsays simonsays
I don't get my watches back with damaged hands after a service.

Until you do ... it happens.

simonsays simonsays
I would have expected that to have been replaced with a new hand rather than refitted if it was a reputable service.

Due to the unicorn nature of these original hands, and the fact that most collectors prefer originality above 'shiny-new', that is not really possible. ..if it were, there would be a whole ton of these things around. Unless you want a brand new replacement hand whose orange looks 'wrong'...
 
simonsays
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eugeneandresson eugeneandresson
Until you do ... it happens.



Due to the unicorn nature of these original hands, and the fact that most collectors prefer originality above 'shiny-new', that is not really possible. ..if it were, there would be a whole ton of these things around. Unless you want a brand new replacement hand whose orange looks 'wrong'...

I am imagining a service many years ago, not in the last few years, when the value of this hand would not be recognised. In fact deemed incorrect and therefore replaced. If it was done recently I would expect more respect/care would have been taken. How rare these hands are is not yet fully established, I know a few watches have been ruled out but I would expect that there is another watch out there with a suitable hand. I would be erring on the side of caution when paying such a premium.
 
eugeneandresson
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simonsays simonsays
I am imagining a service many years ago, not in the last few years,

In that case I would imagine that there were a lot of careless folk around 😀 As these watches were not 'crazy-valuable vintage' then...more modern, and most likely a dime a dozen.

simonsays simonsays
If it was done recently I would expect more respect/care would have been taken.

Totally. But still, it happens (from experience).

simonsays simonsays
How rare these hands are is not yet fully established, I know a few watches have been ruled out but I would expect that there is another watch out there with a suitable hand. I would be erring on the side of caution when paying such a premium.

This side of the whole ultraman thing I have not (nor will) address...I spoke subjectively from a vintage angle (so hot-dead-horse-topic aside). Also if someone like Spacefruit has a hard time finding a hand, it would appear that they are not that common...
 
P
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simonsays simonsays
I don't get my watches back with damaged hands after a service. I would have expected that to have been replaced with a new hand rather than refitted if it was a reputable service. Given the nature of these Ultraman watches, hand damage is a serious problem for me, and an indicator of tampering. I would not be buying without good and believable provenance from the original owner. That would be more valuable and more important than the Extract.
How is the damage more of a sign of tampering than it is from service? It just shows that it is either very fragile or that a watch maker was clumsy. Or both. 😀

Can’t see how it is a sign of tampering unless the watch isn’t described as untouched. Which it is clearly not.
 
Archer
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simonsays simonsays
If it was done recently I would expect more respect/care would have been taken.

Well, as someone who removes and installs countless hands on watches, I think you are missing the fact that painted hands are somewhat delicate, in particular vintage hands. Although this certainly could be due to a careless watchmaker, to say so with such certainty is, well...🙄

The fact is this hand is pressed on with significant force, concentrated in a very small area, and despite being as careful as you can possibly be in this operation, paint sometimes flakes off due to repeated compression in the same location over the years during multiple services. And yes some hands were not painted well right from the factory, and are prone to flaking.

While I agree that erring on the side of caution when paying such a premium is something people should do, it is pretty well established that these hands are rare in the world of Speedmaster hands. We all have to make decisions on what we can tolerate when buying a watch (for the record I have zero interest in a Speeemdaster with an orange hand), but to make this into something that "rings alarm bells" or a "indicator of tampering" is a little over the top.

Cheers, Al
Edited:
 
padders
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The Ultraman is a bit of fun from an otherwise fairly serious manufacturer and it was good to see it’s recent story unfold. How Omega started to openly recognise it was a genuine model, MWO devoting pages and research to it and so on. All rather heart warming. There are many grey areas still to be clarified of course: just how many were originally released, were there any other unique parts other than the orange hand. Some say 50 were made, some say the dial is special, others say who knows how many there are (there do seem to be a lot about for a 50 off release) and that the dial is normal for a -67.

The fun rather stops when the speculators get involved and start asking 5 figures plus for them. If as is quite possible, all you have over a std 145.012-67 is an orange hand then you better hope to hell that it stays in one piece when it is next removed at service time, else much of the value of your piece may evaporate there and then. Particularly if said hand is a unicorn part as it does seem to be. I predict Mr J Hyman needing to invest in a pot of orange paint at some point if values do go silly. This auction and others like it will tell us the real current value of one of these, clouded history and all.
Edited:
 
simonsays
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Perhaps I could have worded it better, but I have had probably 15-20 watches with variations of this hand, Flightmasters, Chronostops, Mk IIs, Hard metals, and none of them have had any paint damage to the second hand. Perhaps I was lucky, perhaps they never had a service but.....

....now we have this watch where that hand is worth serious money attached to this particular watch and low and behold, paint damage. Yes there are plenty of good arguments for why it is there, that does not ease my unease.
 
Archer
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simonsays simonsays
....now we have this watch where that hand is worth serious money attached to this particular watch and low and behold, paint damage. Yes there are plenty of good arguments for why it is there, that does not ease my unease.

Then don't buy it.
 
Slowpoker
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Does anyone know what the orange hand is actually made from?

I don't think it's metal judging by the way that the paint is chipping off of the part where it attaches to the movement.
 
Archer
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simonsays simonsays
Insightful, thanks.

I'm not sure what you are really going on about here to be honest. If your assertion is that any watch hand that has damage is some sign of nefarious intent, then that's complete nonsense.

Damage on vintage hands is extremely common - just one example here with a Speedmaster I serviced recently - the condition that the watch was received in:



Closer look reveals varying damage on all 4 chronograph hands:



The hands were put back on just as you see them here. Your previous statements saying that a damaged hand would be replaced at service is certainly not always the case. Yes if Omega was doing the work maybe, but watches being worked on by local independent watchmakers (who were far less likely to replace hands at every service as Omega does) in the past was far more common than it is today.

If you want to make a big deal out of this, that's certainly up to you. If you are trying to make people lose interest in the hopes of scooping it at a lower price, then I wish you luck I suppose...

Cheers, Al
 
Archer
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Slowpoker Slowpoker
Does anyone know what the orange hand is actually made from?

I don't think it's metal judging by the way that the paint is chipping off of the part where it attaches to the movement.

Painted metal. Most common material is brass.
 
kingsrider
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Slowpoker Slowpoker
Does anyone know what the orange hand is actually made from?

I don't think it's metal judging by the way that the paint is chipping off of the part where it attaches to the movement.
It's made from Unobtainium.
Edited:
 
simonsays
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Archer Archer
I'm not sure what you are really going on about here to be honest. If your assertion is that any watch hand that has damage is some sign of nefarious intent, then that's complete nonsense.


If you want to make a big deal out of this, that's certainly up to you. If you are trying to make people lose interest in the hopes of scooping it at a lower price, then I wish you luck I suppose...

Cheers, Al

I think you are missing the point, which is the significance and importance of this hand originally belonging to this watch, and the fact that it has been on and off several times by the look of it. There are huge numbers of this type of hand on watches with zero damage, that is what I am highlighting.

If I thought I could win auctions by posting my opinions here I would be a bit deluded.
 
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