Omega Speedmaster 145.012-67 on an auction today!

[hansaboy]

Hello Forum People!
It is time to focus on auctions again!
I have had a loooong and nice holiday, and kickstarted my work a few weeks ago!.
But now I have followed an auction that I would like to share with you?

It is a Speedmaster 145.012-67, no owner or service history (there are a few servicemarks).

The condition of the dial is very hard to see, and I could not get any more pictures or help from the auctioneer.
Zooming in and out on the few pictures, there are no obvious damages or deeper marks.
I also tried to process the pictures, but with not much success,
I think that to to make a correct assessment, this one had to be held in hand.
Lume plots looks complete, with some spots/discoloration.
The hands look a bit tired, it has the drop end chrono, the chronohand lume might have been touched up.
Bezel (DON) has some small marks/scratches, but other than that its very good.
The case has a lot of dings and marks, so not so exiting maybe?
And the caseback - it is really messed up!!
The crystal is very scratched, but there is an Omegalogo on it.
The crown is a service crown, the pushers looks correct (and dirty....).
The movement serial nr checks correct for this ref (26 mil),
some of the screwheads have been abused..and the movement is in need for a full service.

I don't think that this is a good/fine piece, maybe the condition of the dial would make it ”a happy watch”?

Since I didn't get any more info, and I couldn't see the watch in person, I skipped on this one!

But the hammerprice was 7150€/7700$ with the premium!
(EDIT...I missed up on the exchange rate..)!
So somebody must have wanted the watch??
And there where at least 5-6 bidders who fought over it…

There has been some discussions here on the Forum regarding the current value of Speedys - I wonder why this one flew??

Edited: Sep 11, 2023

 

[Spacefruit]

Looks a (too) strong price to me

 

[pdxleaf]

Hopefully Speedys aren't becoming attractive for their parts. With nice bezels going for 2500 plus, I wonder how many watches are getting dismantled.

It's easy to "forget" about the commission when bidding. It's not a super attractive watch, but it does show the continuing appeal of 321s.

 

[PerJ]

Sometimes two bidders just have decided to buy something and it pushes the price to high levels. And sometimes no one wants it and stuff goes weak.

Just the charm with auctions.

 

[Dan S]

Foolish bidding IMO.

 

[hansaboy]

checked out the biding stats... 3 bidders on the final hour, and then 2 who were on it!
Pweeew....pricy? Or they might have seen a perfect brown and lovely dial???

 

[PerJ]

hansaboy

checked out the biding stats... 3 bidders on the final hour, and then 2 who were on it!
Pweeew....pricy? Or they might have seen a perfect brown and lovely dial???

Local buyers that have great trust in the auction house and are a tad afraid to go out hunting would be my guess. Hope the winner is happy with his or her new watch. Watches are feelings and doesn’t always have to be a great buy financially.

 

[hansaboy]

Spacefruit

Looks a (too) strong price to me

I actually tried your "new way" of setting a value on this watch...

Would I buy it for:
2000 € - Yepp!
3000 € - Sure thing!
4000 € - I think so, but the bad case back would sink my mood every time I look at it (may polish it down..?)
5000 € - I had to see the dial, so that amount would be too high....

So in the end, maybe 4500 €, with the known problems, and a gamble on the condition of the dial?
But there where a few more who maybe knew more about the watch...

 

[hansaboy]

pdxleaf

Hopefully Speedys aren't becoming attractive for their parts. With nice bezels going for 2500 plus, I wonder how many watches are getting dismantled.

It's easy to "forget" about the commission when bidding. It's not a super attractive watch, but it does show the continuing appeal of 321s.

I do hope that the buyer will not "butcher" the watch for parts...that would be awful!
And as you wrote - there might be a small rise in the interest regarding vintage Speedys?

 

[hansaboy]

P PerJ

Sometimes two bidders just have decided to buy something and it pushes the price to high levels. And sometimes no one wants it and stuff goes weak.

Just the charm with auctions.

Exactly, been there myself...
Its so easy to loose yourself in the heat of the battle!

 

[paddymoran]

I don’t tend to bid more than once on auctions but rather set my limit, bid once (near the end) and see what happens - it seems that two bidders got carried away on this one ….

As an aside I can’t fathom how the caseback is in such poor condition while the owner(s) must have been very careful not to mark the bezel.

 

[Davidt]

Another factor which we haven’t really discussed is the amount of 60’s Speedmasters on the market at the minute.

Dealers always have plenty at dealer prices, but there aren’t that many available from private sellers. There have been very few privately listed, fresh to market 321’s on eBay, bricks and mortar auction houses or the forum over the last few months.
Many buyers, especially newish collectors are impatient so I wouldn’t be surprised if the relatively low supply of driving up the price of some at the minute.

 

[hansaboy]

Davidt

Another factor which we haven’t really discussed is the amount of 60’s Speedmasters on the market at the minute.

Dealers always have plenty at dealer prices, but there aren’t that many available from private sellers. There have been very few privately listed, fresh to market 321’s on eBay, bricks and mortar auction houses or the forum over the last few months.
Many buyers, especially newish collectors are impatient so I wouldn’t be surprised if the relatively low supply of driving up the price of some at the minute.

Could be so, I have a few on my "radar", but in really bad condition (most of them...).
The fine ones are maybe stashed away for the next nice rising in the economy/spending spree?