Hi all.....
Dave is the name, and this is my first post.

I stumbled upon this great forum last night and got to sleep pretty late as a result.
There is so much information available, and the depth of knowledge here is incredible. Guess i might be sleeping late again tonight .

Anyhow, i´m hoping i can get a bit of help with regards recommissioning my Speedmaster Professional.
First a bit of history about the watch since it came into my possession.

A friend of mine that i was working with in Durban South Africa around 1993, asked if i would be interested in buying an Omega Speedmaster. (He already owned one and he really loved his watch).
Anyhow, he had spotted the watch in a pawnbrokers in Durban city centre, and it was up for sale for the equivalent of 300 pounds.
I loved the functional look of the watch and ended up buying it. I wore it every day for the next 6 years or so, then moved back to Uk.

Around 2000, i sent the watch off to Omega for a full service, and being a complete pratt, asked if they could remove and replace the stained hands. This was done and after a hefty bill, the watch was returned to me.
A few months later one of the push buttons fell off and was lost, so i sent the watch back to Omega for a new one to be fitted.
To my surprise, i received a call to say that the watch was in need of a major service. I was not happy to hear this, as i had only just paid for a full service a few months earlier. I explained the situation, and continued my discussion with an extremely embarrassed Omega rep. Because of the mix up, they offered to replace the push button free of charge.

The watch was returned to me, and i continued to wear it for the next couple of months, only to have the push button fall off again. Also the stainless strap broke.
This is around the point that i lost interest in it, had a new cheap stainless strap fitted, and threw the watch in to the bottom of a drawer where it has remained up until now.

Back to the present, and a friend at work was showing me his new 12k rolex, which I´m sure is a really nice watch, but for me it looked ugly....way too much bling. This got me thinking about my old watch.
I suppose as the years have gone by, i now appreciate older things more than i did, and can now appreciate that the Speedmaster is a beautiful, sturdy, functional watch which i want to start wearing again.

So now the part where i would like to ask a few questions and hopefully get a bit of help.

1. I don´t have the receipt from when the watch went to Omega for the service and replacement hands, and i can´t remember if the dial was replaced at the same time. Stupid i know, but i really didn´t have much interest, or appreciate the watch at that time.
Having done some reading last night, i suspect that it was, but i would really appreciate it if anyone can confirm this. Please see pics

2. Can anyone recommend someone in UK that can do a service and check the watch over for me. I will send it to Omega if need be, but would rather not.

3. I would like to have either a genuine Omega stainless bracelet, or leather strap fitted. By looking at the attached pictures, can anybody tell me what model bracelet strap would fit, and maybe best place to find one (it would be great if one was available here on the forum)

4. I would also like to fit a new push button to the watch. Can anyone advise the correct serial number.

Ok all, thanks in advance for any help offered, and have a great weekend ahead.

All the best.
Dave.

 

Hello,
nice watch!
To me the dial was replaced, normally it's a step dial on this Speed.
The hands look good, the bezel in the right one (DON)
For a service you can ask Simon Freese in the UK.

 

I'm sure you'll get a fair bit of advice. What I'd recommend is taking what this thread generates, then talk to either Swiss Time Services and/or Simon Freese (Google them) who will give you options as to what is the best course of action, and of course the potential cost!

 

To me the cost would be around $6500.

 

Great story, and welcome. This is a great watch.

The hands have been replaced as you noted, as has the dial, unfortunately. If you're timeline is correct, I would find it odd that Omega would replaced the original the dial with this one. The dial on your watch was produced somewhere between 1991-1997. From 1997 on, the dial would not have contained tritium in the luminous markers, and therefore would not have had the "T" on either side of the "Swiss". My guess is that you are either off by a few years in when you sent it in to Omega for the refurb, or perhaps for some random reason, Omega did outfit this watch with a dial that was a few years old.

Regardless, its still a great watch, and carries a good bit of value (that bezel alone is becoming increasingly valuable, with the Dot over 90). My suggestion would be to get the pusher replaced, and/or the watch serviced by someone reputable and experienced working on vintage watches. have them change only what is absolutely necessary to the mechanical function of the watch, and do not let them polish the case at virtually all costs.

 

for a service? more like $650...

 

As a selling price!
For a service it's around $400-500

 

$6500 for a 145.022-69 with replaced dial, crown, and missing pusher? Seems optimistic.

 

I don't think the dial was replaced when you sent it in, but likely was before you owned it. It looks like an '80s service dial to me, with attractively discolored lume. The tells are the no-step, as previously mentioned, as well as the no-drop R at the end of Speedmaster. In 2000 you would have likely gotten a Superluminova dial if they had replaced it. Interestingly though, it appears that they fitted tritium hands when they did the replacement, as Superluminova hands wouldn't look like that now I don't think, so you may have lucked out a bit there.

The bezel is banged up, but being a Dot over 90, it probably has the greatest value on the watch. That condition would probably sell for $2500 or so for just the bezel, and maybe more.

 

The dial is definitely a 90's dial, with the short S not produced until approximately '91... I was going to mention that about the hands though, I agree they're tritium. Maybe the service center was getting rid of their old stock of tritium service parts? this would at least be consistent if they had replaced the dial and hands with tritium at the same time (we know they did this for the hands, at least, so why not the dial too)

 

I couldn't remember the specifics of exactly when they went back to the short S and short R off the top of my head. Wish my tritium lume from '77 looked anywhere near that.

 

Funny, that no one has mentioned what this watch actually is....

Without a look inside we do not know what we have here - there is a chance it is a 145.012 with an Omega service dial.

Lets see inside. We need to know before talking values.

Send it to Simon Freese.

 

Haha, true. We got quite ahead of ourselves. My apologies to the OP.

For that matter, what stops it from being a 105.012-66 with a service dial?

For some reason, I was under the impression it was a 861, which would make it a 145.022-69. But you're right, we don't know that having not seen inside.

 

A 105.012-66 has the single step case back. So the possibility is there, however the pushers are screw in and too tall, but they were replaced so we cannot rely on those. The shape of the lugs shows no residual facets of the 66CB and the lugs dont look right for a 66HF.
However it could have been polished.

So in my humble opinion the likely options are a 145.022 or a 145.012. My gut is telling me it might be a 145.012 but that is perhaps because I love a fairytale happy ending.

 

I always thought that the service dials for 321 Omegas had the applied logos, so I'd imagine that this is a 145.022-69

 

Interesting point. Nowadays they do, but I'm not sure if that was a thing during the late 90's-2000.

Can't wait to see a movement shot, OP

 

Some Calibre 321 Service dials:

 

Wow.....thanks so much for all the replies.
There is so much enthusiasm for these watches here.......it really rubs off, and i´m now really excited to find out more about my watch.
I´ve dropped Simon Freese a mail and will have asked him if he is able to give it a service, and basically get it back up to scratch again.

Would Simon, give a basic report back on a watch that he worked on by default, or should i ask him to take a pic or two of the movement and serial no etc. Just so that i know what it is i have, and to be able to post back here

It would be nice if it turned out to be a slightly more desirable example, but i´m really not worried about that, and just want to be able to start wearing it and enjoying it again.

Regarding the info i gave about the timeline that i bought the watch and had it serviced. I´ve had a good think about it, it could definitely have been a bit earlier......maybe around 90 for purchase and 95 for service.
Don´t the years just fly over at an incredible rate....so hard to keep track.

Anyhow, thanks again for all the replies, really much appreciated.

Cheers.

Dave.

 

There's a quick way to figure out whether it's a 321 or 861 Speedy! With my iPhone I can capture slow-motion videos. Then it's easy to see whether the chrono-second hand moves 5 or 6 times per second.

EDIT: sorry I guess I should explain better:

145.012 with 321 has a beat rate of 18000/hour = 5 times/sec
145.022 with 861 has a beat rate of 21600/hour = 6 times/sec

 

@maxbelg

I just did that with my two. An Ed White and a 20th anniversary Apollo 13. It worked for me. Thanks for sharing.