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David_Young
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I have mainly been involved in military watches all my life and I picked up some very interesting Issued Speedmasters a while back, Moon watch only did an article on . I have little knowledge on the Soyuz watches but would like to run a few theories for the experts.
The Rhodesia Military had a long standing relationship with Omega watches , Firstly the 2777-4 , 1957 Omegas Ordered by the UK Military .
Then there has been The MK II Speedmasters that have been delivered in two batches so as far as I know and even an early ST105.003
Then the Speedmaster 145.0022 that I am here to speak about .
So Far I have found 10 Speedmaster 145.0022 Issued to the Rhodesia Military . 4 X I own . All delivered on the November 25th 1976
Out of the 10 I have seen 9 of them have the large 5.5 mm Pushers as seen on the Soyuz batch from 3918000 – 39181000
Out of the ones I have found they all have very low serial numbers in the double digits of 391800XX
The one with normal size pushers is serial 355815XX It was also delivered on the 25th of November 1976
There is obviously a very clear affiliation with the Soyuz watches.
Now I believe with the ones I know with big pushers all fall in to double digit first serial number range 391800XX So far going by issue numbers we can only assume there are around 30 Issued Speedmaster 145.022
First Theory :
There is no need for Soyuz watches to have larger 5.5 mm pushers ! But there is a huge need for the Military . The Omega Speedmasters were issued to Hawker Canberra Pilots only from my research and having watches with larger pushers in a cockpit is certainly a bonus.
Now with all mine being very low serial numbered and some even sequential this makes sense that they were made for the military and not for the Italian market.
But all mine are Dated 25th November 1966 when I have seen Earlier May Dated ones in 1966 sent to Italy but with much later dated serial numbers.
Personally I think the cases could have been a military order which never went ahead and they had to get rid of the 400 odd watches they had made. In my mind it makes a lot of sense for a good argument but has obvious holes like the whole history of the Soyuz watches do.
Im not even saying they are a Rhodesia Military order at the time but were sold to them after maybe a big MOD order fell through . After all most the watches the Rhodesia Military had are sent over from the UK MOD
I mean what would you do on a failed project ? You would make them a special edition and get rid .
Obviously no evidence , but I think its possible .
Theory 2:
The normal pusher Speedmaster with movement number 355815XX
This watch bugs me as it puts a huge spanner in Theory 1 , but I think its well worth a good mention as it falls into the some of the serial numbers of the second batch of Soyuz say from 400-500 .
If mine was delivered on the same date 25th November 1976 ( confirmed with extracts ) along with watches from serial 391800XX all on the same date .
Doesn't this prove that Soyuz watches from lets say serials 400-500 could have been delivered at the same time and were not a special order with big pushers from 100-400 etc …
And were not made up out of parts from an Italian company ?
Forgive my long post for some reason even after not looking at these watches for years I woke up with it picking at my brain .
I just cant get over the relationship between the Rhodesia Speedmasters and the Soyuz Speedmasters .
Like I said sorry if new information is out there and I am behind on my knowledge just putting some Ideas out.
More than happy to have my Ideas proven wrong .
If anyone has any very early serial numbered Soyuz watches could you let me know how low the serial is and when they were delivered ??
Regards, David.
PS. For anyone interested , my Avatar is a Jebel Cat , it was chosen by the Rhodesia Pilots as there symbol and its been said by several that served in the airfoce it was inspired by the pilots watch Omega symbol.
