Hey there folks, I just wanted to ask a question about the serial ranges for DON bezels on Speedmasters. I was looking at a 145.022-69 that looked nice and all on the up and up but from reading some of Fratello's guide to the reference and came across a confusing statement: "...keep in mind, that if your reference/serial number should have a DON bezel and it hasn’t..." and then mentions the high price to buy one. My question with the 145.022-69 is that he also mentions before that "not every 145.022-69 was delivered with a DON bezel, there are also 145.022-69 references that had the non-DON bezel (if that makes sense)." Thing is... it doesn't quite make sense to me. Is there a clear guide on the serial range that did or did not have the DON bezel? Not end of the world if it's not right, but there's one other questionable aspect on the watch and I want to have all my facts together.
Interesting question, I'm not sure anyone has done a thorough study of DON vs DNN on a database of 145.022-69 serial numbers. In fact Speedmaster 101 shows a 3058x serial block watch with a DNN as correct, but I also have a 3058x block watch with a DON that I've owned for more than 40 yrs and know the bezel has not been changed, so it does not really appear to be an exact science. I suppose that a production date would be more accurate than a serial number, although as we all know Omega did not "throw out" DON bezels when a new batch of DNN came in.
Super interesting. I’m glad I’m not asking a completely stupid question. The watch I was looking at sold anyway so I guess this will just be a good guide if I come across more in the future.
There's quite a specific transition as it moved from DON, to 220, to DNN. The key thing is, the dates and serial range for 220's is known, so you can infer the range for both DON and then DNN. I can't remember the exact serials off the top of my head but a search should reveal it fairly quickly.
I was just lookinging at the 3rd edition of MWO and it says the run of DON is to the region of 30.596.xxx
That would be 30588xxx up to about 31008xxx for the 220 bezels. Gives a bit of a guide, I think, although it wouldn’t be exceptional to find that Omega did not always use movements with their serial numbers in sequence.
My watch with DON is 30584xxx so probably one of the last ones. Waiting for an extract but expected to be mid 1970.