Wellcome, and what I nice watch you have there!
And its nice that you will keep it, and let it stay in the family.
Since you have paperwork, and a connection with the former owner - doesn't he/she know anything about the red hand?
Original owners often have faulty memories in my experience. But an Extract of the Archives is a good idea if you want to do more research.
As others have said, that red seconds hand did not come from Omega that way. While Omega has used differently colored seconds hands on various Speedmaster models over the years, they were either lumeless (like the orange hand on the Ultraman watches from late 60s), or had lume like on a normal hand that had been painted red. They also tended to have colored sub seconds hands to match. Closest example of your hand that really came from Omega is on the Alaska Project prototype, but that definitely had normal lume. And your watch is NOT an Alaska Project prototype, just a standard Speedy Pro with a painted hand.
Now, was it originally on the watch when the person you got it from bought it? Who knows. Jewelry stores used to change things on watches all the time back in the day -- swapping out Rolex dials with cheaper bejeweled aftermarket ones was pretty common. I wouldn't put it past a shop to have painted the hand as a special order for a customer (maybe he saw one on another watch and liked it), then decided not to buy it. So the shop just sold it.
I doubt any injury from Omega will return anything other than for a standard Speedmaster Pro.
technician at the boutique, the latter who is purported to be a Speedmaster authority
Ohhh, the Mystery..... I can sell you a few vintage hands in yellow, green .... light blue perhaps? More to talk about. It's nothing special. Not a special model. If you believe, it is, invest CHF 130 and get an EoA from the factory. Just wear and enjoy.
🙄
There's more Speedmaster authority here on this forum than you'll ever find at a Boutique or AD.
My interest still lies in some members of other watch fora mentioning they have seen a precious few over the years just like this, supposedly for the factory.
I think I mentioned earlier that because of this being an important legacy piece for me, it is staying with me and in my family, so I am simply curious as to this aspect of its history. Could have been someone who serviced it previously decided they liked a red hand better, or damaged an original white hand and only had a red one, who knows?! And that is the interesting part for me as its current custodian, solving the mystery as best as possible.
If you can post a link to this thread on another forum, that would be helpful. Even more helpful would be if those experts have links to auction listings (or photos) of those other examples. The level of Speedmaster expertise here is pretty much unparalleled, and I don't think we've ever seen a hand like that. So there would be a lot of interest in the documentation you are describing.
My interest still lies in some members of other watch fora mentioning they have seen a precious few over the years just like this, supposedly for the factory.
Can you quote an example of this red over painted hand being seen before? Are you sure you aren't perhaps confusing this with the Ultraman Orange hand? It looks awfully like a regular hand that has been rather clumsily overpainted. Not factory looking at all.
Calling @Spacefruit (the boss of Speedmaster matters, or at least on the high command) have you seen anything like this?
Can you quote an example of this red over painted hand being seen before? Are you sure you aren't perhaps confusing this with the Ultraman Orange hand? It looks awfully like a regular hand that has been rather clumsily overpainted. Not factory looking at all.
Calling @Spacefruit (the boss of Speedmaster matters, or at least on the high command) have you seen anything like this?
Here is one of the links to my recent threads. This has been a deep rabbit hope for sure and Ill post anything else that I find that seems authoritative. https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/...edmaster-is-it-original.5461139/post-56028648
I'll also post information as I get it back from Omega.
It is clear from the picture you provided all the sub dial hands, and the red hand have been painted over whilst attached to the watch - they have painted over the pivots. This is a classic sign of an enthusiastic model paint amateur bodge job and not factory work.
The luminous material on the red hand being painted over is even more of a red flag (see what I did there).
