Hi Everyone, I was hoping to get a some advice or insight on how to obtain a birth year watch. I am fairly new to watch collecting, but have been infatuated with the Omega speedmaster professional. My birthyear is 1990 and I have looked at Ilovemyspeedmaster for the serial number: Extract Prediction For October 1990, 48261334 to 48261844 For 1990, 48256275 to 48262881 My question are: Aside from this forum, are there any other sites aside from ebay where I find more watches that match the serial number? What is the price range of watches in fairly good condition for this year? Anything I should be wary of when I purchase one? Any major defect from this particular production period? Thank you in advance.
One thing you ought to be aware of is that Omega did not assemble movements into cases in order. The movement serial number only gets you within two or three years of the actual watch assembly date. If you buy one with documentation of the first purchase, you could decide that's the birth of the watch for your purposes, regardless of when the watch was assembled. Or you could be prepared to buy several, get their extracts, and flip ones where the assembly date isn't what you wanted. Or wait for one to come up for sale with an extract already...
Well... that time period should be 18 jewels marked 17... which should help narrow it down. And 861 not 1861.
Unfortunately, I am not prepared to buy several watches for their extract. I think just finding one in that range is difficult enough. Would you happen to know the price range I am looking at?
Price would be likely £2000-2400 depending on condition and whether a full set in a private sale, maybe £250 more from a dealer. I do think you may struggle to find one exactly 1990. I wouldn't bank on using a serial, maybe getting one on 1990 papers is best. ironically you would have much more chance if your birth year was 1957-1977 since watches of that age will generally be easier to pin down to a year and may already have had an extract generated.