Omega Speedmaster Value Question

[SemiF18]

Hello everyone, please bear with me. My story is a bit long, but it will make sense in the end. As the title states I'm trying to gauge the value of my watch. However, I want to be clear, I have no interest in selling it, I'm just curious because my wife and I put our assets into a trust and our lawyer asked if we had anything of value we wanted to add to it such as jewelry, expensive cars, etc. I don't think my watch will come close to a value that would cause me to put it in the trust but I want to close the loop because it is unique. Background, I'm a retired Navy F18C pilot, was lucky enough to be selected for TOPGUN way back in 2000......I retired 11 years ago. As military aviators are aware, squadrons will periodically do a "watch purchase" to acquire nice aviation watches at a discount. Usually they are Breitling's, but in this case we did a purchase with Omega for the Speedmaster (I'm not at all a watch guy, so please tell me if I'm not even getting the model correct). At the time I think we were the very first F18 unit to do it, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyhow, I purchased the watch through the squadron, which has the TOPGUN logo on the back, which you can see in the picture. For those that don't know, TOPGUN is the unofficial name, the official name is Navy Fighter Weapons School (Currently it's folded into NAWDC or Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center). I wore the watch while flying combat missions and during the rest of my career. After I retired I stopped wearing watches altogether so this has been sitting in a drawer for over a decade. It's in excellent shape, but as you can tell from the pics it's in desperate need of a deep cleaning and a new battery. I don't know how many of these were made. At the extreme rare end if our squadron was the only one then there are about 12 that exist. But there very well could be more and probably are. So that's my story with this watch. I honestly have no idea if a legit TOPGUN Omega watch adds any value to a standard Speedmaster, which is why I'm on this forum looking for even a ballpark figure. Again, I am absolutely not going to sell this watch, I don't need the money and it does have significant meaning to me as it's the only nice watch I've ever purchased and I did fly with it in combat so I do want to pass it down to my kids. Any information or help getting it appraised is appreciated. Thank you.

 

[pdxleaf]

Contact Omega. They service these for free for military inscribed casebacks. It's about a one thousand dollar service. They replace the movement.

A couple years ago these military ones were 3500 to 4k. At least that's what I was seeing. Someone else may have more recent figures.

Thanks for your service. As a four year enlisted Army, I am extremely jealous (the F18 bit, but the watch is pretty cool too.)

 

[JimInOz]

As per above.

My only comment would be to remove the battery immediately if not already done so.
The majority of the batteries for this watch are made by Renata, and I've had two Renata batteries leak after going flat.
Leaking batteries an cause corrosion damage, so flat batteries must be removed ASAP.

PS: The F-18 was a great aircraft. I was involved with our first batch (RAAF) way back when (1983?)..
As an ADVTECH (Weapons Systems), the jump from our Mirage III fighters to the F-18 was a steep learning curve for us.

 

[Omegafanman]

pdxleaf

Contact Omega. They service these for free for military inscribed casebacks. It's about a one thousand dollar service. They replace the movement.

A couple years ago these military ones were 3500 to 4k. At least that's what I was seeing. Someone else may have more recent figures.

Thanks for your service. As a four year enlisted Army, I am extremely jealous (the F18 bit, but the watch is pretty cool too.)

I did not know about the free service. Is that the same in all countries/models. I know a retired RAF helicopter pilot with an inscribed Seamaster.

 

[pdxleaf]

Omegafanman

I did not know about the free service. Is that the same in all countries/models. I know a retired RAF helicopter pilot with an inscribed Seamaster.

I don't know but I suspect it is true for all countries. People have said Omega serviced their military issued watch, even though the owner was not in the service themselves but simply purchased it from someone who had been in the military. This is another reason why these watches have value above non-military ones.

 

[padders]

Omegafanman

I did not know about the free service. Is that the same in all countries/models. I know a retired RAF helicopter pilot with an inscribed Seamaster.

No, just the X-33 with squadron or unit caseback AFAIK. These need battery changes/servicing about twice as often as any other quartz watch and can be temperamental if not looked after.