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Spacefruit
··Prolific Speedmaster HoarderTwo 105.012's:
On cursory inspection, these two watches appear very similar.
In reality, the difference in values is close to a factor of two.
Both are CB cases, as seen by the facet lines on the top of the lugs. These lines can be feint, but if you use light from only one direction, then they will show easily:
These lines are often referred to as "facets". It is more accurate to call them facet junctions, or facet lines, as they are marking the change in between two planes of facets (facets are flat faces, not lines). So I call them "Facet Lines". They are only present on the CB case, and they are often polished off. They have been seen re applied to polished cases, but I do not know any workshop that has successfully done it. I know some that tried and failed.
To sum up the facet lines, I won’t buy a CB case without this characteristic.
If we look at the bezels, we see both are DO90's. We see that not all DO90's are equal...
Left Watch bezel:
Right watch bezel:
Leave aside the damage. Both are genuine, Omega supplied original bezels.
As you can see these bezels while both being DO90's they are different, and I personally value them differently.
Note the first bezel has thicker print. I do not know why this is, and I hope someone knows the actual reason. I can only speculate about worn out machinery, but I don't know. All I know is that all things being equal, I pay more for the second bezel.
In terms of quality, I would rate the left bezel as Fair - Good and the right as Very Good - Excellent.
Things to note:
The second bezel font is thinner and well-defined. There is a strong serif on the 3, and serifs on the 1's.
Both bezels have identical layouts and relative placements. Note the M has the same characteristics, just the first one is thicker.
Here is a close pair of comparisons:
The left watch, with thicker font
Now the right:
FInally:
The point I am making is we need to recognise the value difference between these two types of bezels.
Now the Dial.
The left watch has a dial that is dirty, oil damaged and scratched. The lume markers show leakage though I do not think they have been adjusted.
Moving from top to bottom are the following:
Damage / leakage on 12 marker
Leakage on 11 marker
Slight damage to dial surface on running seconds subdial.
Slightly greater damage to minute sub dial
scratch and damage to hour subdial.
3 and 9 marker shows leakage
5 6 and 7 show leakage
All markers are dirty and incomplete.
All of the above are easy to hide if you deliberately shoot differently.
Now the better dial - still not perfect, by the way:
Note the body colour, which is clean, and more attractive. There are no marks or scratches.
There are some minor issues with the markers, some black spots, but no binder leakage and the markers are almost all covered. The dial is very fine, but not the best.
I rate the left dial as Fair - Good and the right dial as Very Good - Excellent
Turning the watches over, we can clearly see the difference in wear over the years, with the left-hand watch showing more. Indeed, this is what most speedmasters look like.
Lets look closely at pushers and crown.
If we assume the right-hand watch is 100% original, then we can see the crown on the left is shorter. Now, I have to say I have seen many crowns like this on speedmasters from single owners, but that doesn't make it original. However, I am less rigid than I was. I would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this shorter height 24 tooth crown.
The left pushers are original spec, but because the necks are polished they appear thinner than the right-hand watch. These came from a small batch of NOS pushers I got from the late great Tom Dick. They don't look quite the same as an old pair, but they look better than the service pushers this watch arrived with.
As with all 105.012's the original pushers make the watch much more valuable, and thin neck service pushers reduce the desirability as well as the value.
As to values, I reckon the right-hand watch is 50% more valuable than the left. I also note the right-hand watch might be the same relationship to an Excellent example. This is why we have to be so careful assessing quality and getting hold of critical photos.
Here is a couple of shots in natural light, and many of the issues are disguised.
It is important to assess correctly. It might be easy to over pay for the one on the left (based just on hand held photos), and then see the one on the right bid up way higher than we might expect, as we did not realise the quality.
On cursory inspection, these two watches appear very similar.
In reality, the difference in values is close to a factor of two.
Both are CB cases, as seen by the facet lines on the top of the lugs. These lines can be feint, but if you use light from only one direction, then they will show easily:
These lines are often referred to as "facets". It is more accurate to call them facet junctions, or facet lines, as they are marking the change in between two planes of facets (facets are flat faces, not lines). So I call them "Facet Lines". They are only present on the CB case, and they are often polished off. They have been seen re applied to polished cases, but I do not know any workshop that has successfully done it. I know some that tried and failed.
To sum up the facet lines, I won’t buy a CB case without this characteristic.
If we look at the bezels, we see both are DO90's. We see that not all DO90's are equal...
Left Watch bezel:
Right watch bezel:
Leave aside the damage. Both are genuine, Omega supplied original bezels.
As you can see these bezels while both being DO90's they are different, and I personally value them differently.
Note the first bezel has thicker print. I do not know why this is, and I hope someone knows the actual reason. I can only speculate about worn out machinery, but I don't know. All I know is that all things being equal, I pay more for the second bezel.
In terms of quality, I would rate the left bezel as Fair - Good and the right as Very Good - Excellent.
Things to note:
The second bezel font is thinner and well-defined. There is a strong serif on the 3, and serifs on the 1's.
Both bezels have identical layouts and relative placements. Note the M has the same characteristics, just the first one is thicker.
Here is a close pair of comparisons:
The left watch, with thicker font
Now the right:
FInally:
The point I am making is we need to recognise the value difference between these two types of bezels.
Now the Dial.
The left watch has a dial that is dirty, oil damaged and scratched. The lume markers show leakage though I do not think they have been adjusted.
Moving from top to bottom are the following:
Damage / leakage on 12 marker
Leakage on 11 marker
Slight damage to dial surface on running seconds subdial.
Slightly greater damage to minute sub dial
scratch and damage to hour subdial.
3 and 9 marker shows leakage
5 6 and 7 show leakage
All markers are dirty and incomplete.
All of the above are easy to hide if you deliberately shoot differently.
Now the better dial - still not perfect, by the way:
Note the body colour, which is clean, and more attractive. There are no marks or scratches.
There are some minor issues with the markers, some black spots, but no binder leakage and the markers are almost all covered. The dial is very fine, but not the best.
I rate the left dial as Fair - Good and the right dial as Very Good - Excellent
Turning the watches over, we can clearly see the difference in wear over the years, with the left-hand watch showing more. Indeed, this is what most speedmasters look like.
Lets look closely at pushers and crown.
If we assume the right-hand watch is 100% original, then we can see the crown on the left is shorter. Now, I have to say I have seen many crowns like this on speedmasters from single owners, but that doesn't make it original. However, I am less rigid than I was. I would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this shorter height 24 tooth crown.
The left pushers are original spec, but because the necks are polished they appear thinner than the right-hand watch. These came from a small batch of NOS pushers I got from the late great Tom Dick. They don't look quite the same as an old pair, but they look better than the service pushers this watch arrived with.
As with all 105.012's the original pushers make the watch much more valuable, and thin neck service pushers reduce the desirability as well as the value.
As to values, I reckon the right-hand watch is 50% more valuable than the left. I also note the right-hand watch might be the same relationship to an Excellent example. This is why we have to be so careful assessing quality and getting hold of critical photos.
Here is a couple of shots in natural light, and many of the issues are disguised.
It is important to assess correctly. It might be easy to over pay for the one on the left (based just on hand held photos), and then see the one on the right bid up way higher than we might expect, as we did not realise the quality.
