Hi All,
My first post here. Great wealth of knowledge from you guys here on the forum. After a few years of wanting one, I finally scored my dream watch. A 145.022-69ST. It has a pre-moon back and a great patina combined with a dot over 90 bezel. I will post pictures later (I realize now I should have come prepared).

My question is this. Is anybody making a repro insert to restore dot over 90 bezels? What is the original bezel insert made of? Is it a thin vinyl sticker? I have seen inexpensive bezel inserts on ebay but none that have the dot over 90 markings.

todd

 

Congrats on the score!
We need pics!
You don't want to put a repop on it do you?

 

Todd does raise an interesting question - two, actually!

[1.] I was under the impression that the bezel insert was likely thin painted aluminum, perhaps silkscreened. But not a sticker.
[2.] While it may be a reproduction, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Omega, or another external source, produce reproduction dot over 90 bezels as replacement items. Or, to see the dot over 90 return to the Speedmaster (besides the dot, the font on newer bezels is different. . . and owning both. . .I prefer the classic).

best,
Mark

 

Here are some before and after pictures:

As I received it:


As it is now (sorry for low light):


Watch was completely frozen when I received it. Local watchmaker did a complete disassembly, cleaning, lubricating. I will start a separate thread about an issue I am still having with it.

Note the bezel insert. Would love to replace it with a proper vintage one. It seems if we had a clean scan of one we could surely get them printed up somewhere? Even on foil.

todd

 

Nevaaa!
It's a tool watch and should have all it's scars
Originality, and patina forever

 

Wouldn't touch it. Very cool!

 

While you would have thought it would be easy to re manufacture a bezel insert to the dot over 90 specification I think it may prove impossible. There needs only to be a minuscule, but identifiable difference and the market will reject it. By that I mean it will undervalue the watch by the value of an original bezel.

I speak from the position of a dealer in antiquities for many years. We have seen imitations arrive in the market, initially undetected and not described as such. Eventually someone finds a test, or an identifier, and things return to previous.

Sometimes it does not. Some years ago the Russians began manufacturing Amethyst in large quantities. The problem was that the cost for the test for natural vs synthetic is higher than the stone value. So now all amethysts are valued as synthetic.

If someone does succeed in reproducing a dot over 90 bezel so that it is indistinguishable then perhaps we will have a situation where patinated ones are more valuable?

However I bet no one can. just look at the new dials, hands, bezels available today.

 

there are thin plastic stickers for the dot over 90 bezelinserts around. these are put on the worn insert and were made in china around 10 years ago. have seen a few; not well made. kind regards. achim

 

Agreed, I love the way it looks. If it bothers you, I'm sure someone here would willingly take it off your hands...

 

I don't understand how you think an exact copy of everything else in the world can be made, yet a round piece of metal cannot be duplicated - especially with the technology of today.

The problem is NOT in reproducing the item, it's the profitability of doing so. 99.9% of the watch buying public would not stress over the placement of one single dot on a bezel that's going on their heirloom Speedmaster, especially if it was specified by Omega as the OEM replacement. The only people who do lose sleep over such trivial things are crazies like us, the anal WIS community. Why would ANYBODY go to the trouble of losing money to make a small run of identical reproduction bezels? Even if somebody did, there would be forum Speedy nuts complaining "It isn't a BASE 1000!" or some other nitpicky item.

I say this as one of the group I'm criticizing. We're f-ing nuts guys, and we should realize that no business really enjoys catering to a miniscule minority of loons...... unless the owner is one of the loons.

Reality intervention complete. Please return to your normal activities. (normal being relative )

 

spacefruit, thanks for the reply.

I am not in favor of a replacement meant to deceive. However, if someone wanted to restore their speedy with a dot over the 90, it would be nice to have the option to get an aftermarket replacement (in whatever form). I have to agree with ulackfocus that if we had a straight on scan of a proper bezel an accurate one would probably not be much trouble. Modern day printing of it may give it away under close scrutiny though. But again, it should not be made to deceive, just to give the option for restoration.

 

One part of this madness that I enjoy is finding the correct vintage parts for my watches. This includes hands, bezels, dials, cases, movements, etc. The final "product" should have parts that are consistent with each other. I hunt for parts all the time and have a couple of vintage dials, and bezels waiting for the appropriate watch. That said, I did put a new pulsemetric bezel on one of my 105.012-66s. It was offered on watches back then so it is period appropriate and I love the way it looks. I guess the only rule for me is do what makes me happy. It's my watch.

 

On a recent visit to the Omega museum it was interesting to see how many of their classic Speedmasters were wearing replacement modern bezels. If it doesn't bother Omega's guardians of history, should it bother us?

 

Yes, it should. Would you go to the art museum and be okay if all the impressionist paintings were 'restored' by a kindergartener's fingerpainting? Would you want your early 50's 356B Speedster 'repaired' with modified VW fenders?

Many of us don't like the way factories restore watches. They use whatever new part that happens to fit and sort of work.

 

This type of thing happens in almost every hobby. You should see the guitars that Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker put out that are suppose to be 'exact' duplicates of desirable old styles. The repro parts are often wrong and people that are really into accuracy go to great length to fix the reissues to bring them closer to original spec. They are always things the factories could have done themselves but didn't.

 

Maybe they didn't so nobody would mistake an original with a reissue. Prevents fraud from deceptive sellers.

 

They just don't know any better. I've got a great mechanic. He's been servicing Omegas for 30-40 years and the shop used to be an official Omega shop. But he doesn't know vintage. When he services a watch he wants to make it look like when it left the factory. That's O'K for some of my watches, but not for my vintage speedys.

 

I think the Omega museum curators know what they are doing. Like us though, they probably can't justify the expense of producing just a handful of parts. I'm sure Swatch are hard task masters when it comes to the accounts. We are talking 50 plus year old classics that were made to be worn in the harshest of environments, I think it's cool that they even still exist. 100% original or not.