Speedmaster 145.012-67, an auction this week!!

Good morning from a sunny and finally decent summer Sweden!

The boat is in the water, the pool is getting up the temp and the garden is turning green!

What would be better that looking for Speedmasters?
😉

I stumbled over this one here, it is a 145.012-67.
Not a beautiful one at first sight, but then I took a closer look.
And asked for more pictures.
The auction house had de-cased the watch, and the picture showed more details regarding the dial.
And the dial itself was pleasant to look at, maybe maybe with a little brown tone?
But the lume plots were tired and very ugly.
The case and caseback looked ok, it must have had some polishing, and with the obvious marks and scratches.
And the movement was also nice.
Serial nr was in the correct range.
Bezel ok, scratches and marks, but no big ones.
The hands where an issue, the tip of the chronohand was bent (how could that have happened 😲..??)
And the colors of the hands didn't match, and different style, so these must have been replaced/redone?
The crown was not the correct one, but for this one, it could be sorted out in the future.
The bracelet was a 1039/516, so this was a plus!

My thoughts here would be a full service, taking care of the hands in some way (new chrono/relume??),
and actually a relume of the dial, I have seen lots of watches with this, and they do look lovely if done correctly!

So the plan was to just follow the auction, and hopefully no one would go over my budget (set very low again),

The auction had an estimate at 2000 - 3000 Eur / 2150 - 3220 USD (plus 30% premium),
I do think that this was set low as usual...
The biding started, with a few bids, and then it paused on 4500 Euro, so if I would want it I had to at least go for the next level which was 4800 Euro / 5150 USD.
But I didnt, so the wining bid was 5850 Eur / 6280 USD inkl premium.

By using Speedmaster101:s lovely price chart, (thanks once again @Spacefruit !!)
this would value the watch between fair and good/closer to fair, even though adding in the bracelet I think that the price was a bit high,
since the service, new parts and a relume would cost a bit?
Attaching pictures, and these are not the best...

What do you Guys think??

The body of the dial does not look bad.
There is not much lume left on the dial - so a perfect candidate for a re-lume.

It’s always much easier to value or assess the viability of the Speedmaster after the auction, than before, because we have the price.

At US$6280. We have a head that we can assign a cost of US$5000, after deduction the bracelet - assuming it’s not damaged.

For this, the buyer has got a viable Speedmaster with a Dial that I would have to say in its current condition is ‘fair”.

Plots are terrible and not attractive at all. It’s an ideal candidate for a relume as the base colour of the dial appears to be intact apart from a couple of spots that I would want to check. It’s going to be a dilemma. If you re lume the dial, it’s going to look way better than the bezel and hands, so next thing you know you have Lincoln’s Axe.

The crystal disguises the quality of the dial underneath, and it’s good to see the photograph of the dial bare.

The bezel is an original omega DO90. It has the slim font that I prefer.

The value of this bezel alone is probably around $1000, but it is what I would call fair. It might look better in real life or when cleaned. It also fits with the state of the dial and hands, and would remain on the watch if it were me.

The hands are mismatched, but possibly original, they just don’t look very attractive. It would be possible to restore them and distress them to an attractive vintage look, but perhaps it would be a hiding to nothing with the state of the dial might as well leave them all alone and enjoy it for what it is.

I can’t see anything wrong with the case from these photographs, but quite possibly there are problems in addition to the missing gasket.

The movement clearly needs a service, judging by the position of the hour indicator, but I would expect that in any auction piece

It is what it is. I don’t really see any advantage in restoring this with a relume, and rebuilt hands. The dial and hands would look attractive, but the bezel wouldn’t fit the aesthetic.

I think I would service clean and put it all back together as it is, and with a new crystal. If the bracelet is solid, then it’s probably not a bad watch for the money.

it’s no bargain but then honestly very rarely is any public auction going to produce a bargain. Sometimes we have things that slide under the radar but that is very rare. If you’re going to buy anything at a public auction you have to be ready to pay the market price, often plus one bid.

Bear in mind that a top example of this reference will still achieve $15,000 between knowledgeable collectors.. As is the case, with many things in today’s world, the hardest thing to sell is the middle ground, in this example a 145.012 for 9000 or 10,000 because at that money, it is neither perfect , nor cheap it is much easier to sell a perfect example for too much money, then something that is nearly impossible top, but not.

^wow that’s an enlightening review !
Feel like I learn one or two things reading your analysis.

If the auction house didn't take out the dial, I do think that the watch would have been a total no-go?
So now the dial was out there for a better assessment, and the lousy lump plots showed their ugly face!

But I didn't think about that a redial would look to good/fresh against the other parts of the watch, so that's one for the memory..
Thanks for that one @Spacefruit !

Restoration projects do need some serious thinking and planing, but i don't like the lume plots so now I am a bit happy that I lost this one!

And another thing that I have noticed during my hunts, the beaten and worn watches seem to get high prices.
And finding top condition Speedmasters gets harder and harder.
I might be wrong here so please correct me if I am lost...???

This trend has been obvious in the Aston market - which I follow, but don't really participate any more.

At a time when a top DB4 could sell for £650,000 I saw a barn find untouched example sell for just over £500,000. It needed everything, so in the region of £200,000 to £300,000 to restore. At the end of the day it is still worth £650,000 but the car will have cost the new owner 7-800,000.

When I spoke to the new owner, he told me that this way he will own a car that he knows has never been messed around with, crashed or part restored, leaving issues. He mentioned that to him, it was worth the premium.

I see the same attitude with vintage speedmasters, but perhaps misplaced. After all, many watches are not untouched at all. They just look like crap.

Telling the difference between crap and attractive patina is the game I love to play.

Lastly, people are trying to save money - not really appreciating the risk of entering a rabbit hole.

Think that in the classic car market a lot of buyers find out the hard way that the maths of restoring a car are similar to what you say here. The restored value -/- the cost of the restauration will not match what the to be restored car costs.

The chance to find a - really - untouched watch is small.