Omega Speedmaster Bezels Comparison Guidance

lucreative · Thurs. 10:17pm

Hi OF. I never found an actual detailed resource/thread to what constitutes a fair vs. good vs. very good Speedmaster DON bezels for the 105.003 and 105.012. I know chips, dents, flaking, fading, scratches, and rubbing all affect value and the evaluation of a bezel. Are there threads/examples online that goes into more detail?

For example, is more chips okay if it doesn't affect the numerals or the word "tachymeter" OR less chips but more chips that affect the letters or numbers. I know it's subjective depending on buyer, but for me I'm still trying to learn all I can. It's almost like the 4Cs of diamond buying; cut, clarity, carat, and color of Speedmaster bezels.

For example, I am trying to compare these 2 Speedmaster DON bezels. The dial and lume seem similar (based on the pictures) but the bezel quality are slightly different. Are these bezels comparable, is one very good and the other good? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, including what to look out for when comparing both of these similar bezels. I hope others would find this thread useful and submit their own examples with what category the bezel would fall under. I searched quite a bit on OF but couldn't find a thread that compared bezels to each other like I hope this will.

Dial 1:

Dial 2:

Dan S · Thurs. 11:01pm

You are overanalyzing it, IMO. I would suggest deciding what appeals to you personally and how much a watch is worth to you, and not worrying so much about an arbitrary rating system and someone else’s price chart.

M'Bob · Fri. 7:26am

Excellent question. A hard thing to quantify. When you look at enough, you get a “feel” for how you would loosely grade them. But, as Dan says above, appeal is a subjective thing, so figure the bezel into the overall price of the piece you’re interested in.

For fun, I would grade the top as very good-ish, the bottom, good-plus.

impaw · Fri. 7:37am

Good-ish and good-plus! haha
love it!

Spacefruit · Fri. 9:43am

We need to take into account the font, its thickness and definition of the serifs. Also the cutoff, or extent of it.

In order to be an Excellent DO90 I expect to see a bezel with thin font, no cut-off, clear black background, no fade, no blemishes on the insert at all, no major blemishes in carrier ring.

The problem is sooner or later the repro guys will do it - but so far not.

I think I can tell, but it’s more and more coming down to intuition. Which is a problem as intuition is not reliable.

So far, I am still confident enough to keep my bounty: $4,000 for a bezel that fits that description.

Pixitfecit · Fri. 2:39pm

Spacefruit
We need to take into account the font, its thickness and definition of the serifs. Also the cutoff, or extent of it.

In order to be an Excellent DO90 I expect to see a bezel with thin font, no cut-off, clear black background, no fade, no blemishes on the insert at all, no major blemishes in carrier ring.

The problem is sooner or later the repro guys will do it - but so far not.

I think I can tell, but it’s more and more coming down to intuition. Which is a problem as intuition is not reliable.

So far, I am still confident enough to keep my bounty: $4,000 for a bezel that fits that description.

What about one with bold font?

watch_my_six · Sat. 1:11am

lucreative
Hi OF. I never found an actual detailed resource/thread to what constitutes a fair vs. good vs. very good Speedmaster DON bezels for the 105.003 and 105.012. I know chips, dents, flaking, fading, scratches, and rubbing all affect value and the evaluation of a bezel. Are there threads/examples online that goes into more detail?

For example, is more chips okay if it doesn't affect the numerals or the word "tachymeter" OR less chips but more chips that affect the letters or numbers. I know it's subjective depending on buyer, but for me I'm still trying to learn all I can. It's almost like the 4Cs of diamond buying; cut, clarity, carat, and color of Speedmaster bezels.

For example, I am trying to compare these 2 Speedmaster DON bezels. The dial and lume seem similar (based on the pictures) but the bezel quality are slightly different. Are these bezels comparable, is one very good and the other good? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, including what to look out for when comparing both of these similar bezels. I hope others would find this thread useful and submit their own examples with what category the bezel would fall under. I searched quite a bit on OF but couldn't find a thread that compared bezels to each other like I hope this will.

Dial 1:

Dial 2:

To me, the two are comparable on average, but I prefer the second!

hansaboy · Sat. 5:27am

The bezel comes after the dial when assessing condition, but there is also the over all/total judgement.
I have a 69 with an amazing bezel and case, but the dial is not in the same condition,
and a 66 with a lovey dial and case, but with a very worn bezel.
And other watches with mixed qualities....
You wear and assess the complete watch (if you don not want to optimize watches and swap parts..),
and you have the - Do You Like The Watchometer??

😀

I would set dial nr 1 with a Good bezel, and nr 2 with a Fair plus bezel,
but the watch that I like the most is nr 2!

Omega Speedmaster Bezels Comparison Guidance

lucreative

Dan S

M'Bob

impaw

Spacefruit

Pixitfecit

watch_my_six

hansaboy

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