Red Racing 145.012 Speedmaster on auction May 14th

Spacefruit

I have no problem buying from AQ and would have no issues buying based on these photos. AQ is like a fast flowing dirty river - you never know how good the things are going to be until you pull them out, but for sure you know you are going to see high numbers of varied things pass by close up. No other house has such a volume or variety - true you have to be careful but I would rather sit there viewing than many other places, it’s far more interesting educational and informative. Just make your own judgements. It is a great place to find fake speedmaster bezels.

this watch is very rare. The number is in the upper range. Some of them share the 2607xxxx of the Ultraman.

this is the two line non professional version which shares the dial layout of early dials. No T marks either. The professional version has smaller sub dials ( and subdial hands, though that passed by some watchmakers leading to hand drag when they replaced hands with standard size).

there is debate as to which one is “better”. They are both extraordinarily rare and attractive, I’ll take either.

This one has the long needle, again same as the Ultraman but white. There is variation in chrono hands seen, I don’t know if that is because they were changed. The other one commonly seen hand, is the drop end. I value the needle hand more.

The character of the dial is immensely important to value. Also the quality of the dial. They must be attractive and without damage to reach stratospheric prices. I saw one with damaged lume reach 40,000, and one with NoS dial and top condition go for 100,000 at a similar time.

AQ sold a very similar watch to this for over $200,000.

I wonder how deep the market for these is. They are fiercely contested, but once each of us has one, who else is a buyer? Maybe these will become the Paul Newman of Speedmasters, and every rich watch buyer needs one! If so, there are not enough around - some say 20 pieces, but I think slightly more.

there are several loose dials about - we have to be certain they are original watches. It is pretty straightforward. We have to examine the hands and dial together checking the age of paint and commensurate patina. But it’s pretty obvious for an intuitive eye.

many were sold in UK and used quite strongly, which amused me.

Here is a little factoid from a long gone museum employee - some can’t get extracts, as they contain movements from off beat gold calibre 321’s and they were recased. This was discovered when I acquired one from the original owner, full papers and box, and the museum said the movement was from a 18kt watch, a known poor seller. I was told it was not uncommon to melt the case and re use the movement.

there is also a great theory by the Davidoffs proposing that the Black Racings and the Ultraman were an attempt by Omega to boost flagging sales of the 145.012.


AQ sold this one for €195,000 last year, Jan 2022