Speedmaster Mark II racing dial with orange hour and minute hands?

omegaswisst · Tues. 6:55pm

This one has come for sale locally and has been serviced by Omega according to seller.
I can see the dial has been swapped for a service dial but the seller is selling it as a rare "all orange hand" variant.
As far as I know it never came with orange hour and minute hands.
Anyone who can confirm what the seller is saying?
Thanks in advance.

blufinz52 · Tues. 7:28pm

I know this doesn't help in any way, but I really like the dial and hands. How much are they asking?

JwRosenthal · Tues. 7:31pm

blufinz52
I know this doesn't help in any way, but I really like the dial and hands. How much are they asking?

$6.5k AU, I saw the listing too

flqt-9000 · Tues. 8:08pm

omegaswisst
This one has come for sale locally and has been serviced by Omega according to seller.
I can see the dial has been swapped for a service dial but the seller is selling it as a rare "all orange hand" variant.
As far as I know it never came with orange hour and minute hands.
Anyone who can confirm what the seller is saying?
Thanks in advance.

There is nothing rare here. Only a mark II with service dial and hands and polished case.

omegaswisst · Tues. 8:11pm

flqt-9000
There is nothing rare here. Only a mark II with service dial and hands and polished case.

Those were my thoughts as well.
The case looks like it has been refinished.
But why use the orange hour and minute hands?

OneTwo · Wed. 12:22am

flqt-9000
There is nothing rare here. Only a mark II with service dial and hands and polished case.

Seconded and I would add “Buy the seller”. An over embellishment like this for a set of service hands being touted as rare is something that would cause me pause with a seller.

JimInOz · Wed. 1:30am

omegaswisst
This one has come for sale locally and has been serviced by Omega according to seller.
I can see the dial has been swapped for a service dial but the seller is selling it as a rare "all orange hand" variant.
As far as I know it never came with orange hour and minute hands.
Anyone who can confirm what the seller is saying?
Thanks in advance.

To be fair, the restoration was done by Omega (not the seller) and the seller didn't state it was original, but a rare "all orange hand variant".
Which it plainly is.
Ever formally issued by Omega?
Who knows?

Scarecrow Boat · Wed. 1:37am

Those hands belong on a 145.019, 145.020, 145.024, & 145.029 not a Speedmaster 145.014 MKII. If you know where to look, anyone could buy a new (or used) set of these hands online. This is just a modified watch.

omegaswisst · Wed. 1:40am

OneTwo
Seconded and I would add “Buy the seller”. An over embellishment like this for a set of service hands being touted as rare is something that would cause me pause with a seller.

Interesting you would say that.
Seller is a well established watchmaker in Australia who is known to this forum.
As I've never seen these orange hands been considered as original to the watch I'm a bit surprised about their statement of been "rare".

omegaswisst · Wed. 1:50am

JimInOz
To be fair, the restoration was done by Omega (not the seller) and the seller didn't state it was original, but a rare "all orange hand variant".
Which it plainly is.
Ever formally issued by Omega?
Who knows?

I understand what you are saying but if I threw some orange hands on my watch, which did not come with them in the first place, and called it rare in order to push up price, I think that would be considered misleading by most watch collectors.
For a watchmaker who deals in second hand Omega watches quite regularly they should know better.
It should be clearly stated that the watch has a service dial and what seems like a set of service hands not original to the watch.
Also the watch case has been refinished.

omegaswisst · Wed. 1:55am

Scarecrow Boat
Those hands belong on a 145.019 / 145.020 not a Speedmaster MKII. If you know where to look, anyone could buy a new (or used) set of these hands online. This is just a modified watch.

Thanks for that.
I remember seeing these orange hands on the references you have shown.
It doesn't make sense if the watch has been restored by Omega why they would put these hands on the watch unless the client had already put them on and asked for them not to be changed.

Scarecrow Boat · Wed. 2:10am

omegaswisst
It doesn't make sense if the watch has been restored by Omega why they would put these hands on the watch unless the client had already put them on and asked for them not to be changed.

I have no idea who the seller is. For all I know, they could be linking half truths to tell a whole story (IE “this was serviced by Omega so that legitimizes the hands”) or they bought into a previous sellers story and are just passing on what they believe to be true.

Omega would not have modified this watch for a client, so it’s highly unlikely they installed the hands. It’s also highly unlikely Omega obliged the clients wishes and left the hands in place, as it’s their policy to return watches to original spec, which would mean replacing the incorrect hands with correct ones. The alternative you forgot to mention is that this was in truly refurbished by Omega and the hands were installed at a later time. Who knows… it could all just be a story.

Pastorbottle · Wed. 2:37am

Well looking closely the chrono hands are a different shade of orange to the hour/min hands this could be due to fading with age as they do but it indicates that the hands are not all the same age, which to me implies that the hour/ min hand being darker have been replaced relatively recently at some stage.
The chrono hands look to be a good colour match to the orange makers on the dial which suggests the dial and the chrono hands are probably the same age.

omegaswisst · Wed. 7:41am

Scarecrow Boat
I have no idea who the seller is. For all I know, they could be linking half truths to tell a whole story (IE “this was serviced by Omega so that legitimizes the hands”) or they bought into a previous sellers story and are just passing on what they believe to be true.

Omega would not have modified this watch for a client, so it’s highly unlikely they installed the hands. It’s also highly unlikely Omega obliged the clients wishes and left the hands in place, as it’s their policy to return watches to original spec, which would mean replacing the incorrect hands with correct ones. The alternative you forgot to mention is that this was in truly refurbished by Omega and the hands were installed at a later time. Who knows… it could all just be a story.

Thanks for the information.

Either way, it's fair to say those hands are not original to that watch, which is what I thought from the outset.

YY77 · Wed. 7:47am

omegaswisst
Interesting you would say that.
Seller is a well established watchmaker in Australia who is known to this forum.

I'm guessing Lewis Watchco?

omegaswisst · Wed. 7:51am

YY77
I'm guessing Lewis Watchco?

Nah, Adam would have given full disclosure.

JwRosenthal · Wed. 8:41am

omegaswisst
Nah, Adam would have given full disclosure.

Yeah, from what I have read about LWC, he is very proud of his mods- as he should be, they are well thought out and executed (kind of a “why didn’t Omega think of that
“). But he also ran afoul of omega’s rules if I recall. Perhaps the watchmaker who did this one is afraid of the same fate so is intentionally being vague. Or perhaps this was a LWC mod that is now in the hands of a new owner.

omegaswisst · Wed. 4:29pm

JwRosenthal
Yeah, from what I have read about LWC, he is very proud of his mods- as he should be, they are well thought out and executed (kind of a “why didn’t Omega think of that
“). But he also ran afoul of omega’s rules if I recall. Perhaps the watchmaker who did this one is afraid of the same fate so is intentionally being vague. Or perhaps this was a LWC mod that is now in the hands of a new owner.

Digging a bit further I saw about a week earlier the seller had posted the watch in their newsletter asking for help from their readers.
They state it has recently come in and has "apparently" been recently overhauled by Omega in Switzerland
They state the dial and hands are Luminova and that it's a "service piece".
They are also perplexed by the orange hands and refer readers to a YouTube video where someone is discussing a Mark II for sale which also has orange hands.
In their sales description a week later they state while the watch has been "restored" by Omega it remains a "relatively rare all orange hands racing model".
My previous research into the Mark II had never uncovered such a variant which led me to making this post to see if anyone else has come across such a variant.
As a side note, the seller usually provides quite accurate sales descriptions of their watches but feel in this case they could have stated it's a service dial and the hands are not original to the watch rather than just "restored" by Omega.
Also, to claim it's a "relatively rare all orange hands racing model" is sloppy in comparison to their usually accurate descriptions.

JwRosenthal · Wed. 6:04pm

omegaswisst
Digging a bit further I saw about a week earlier the seller had posted the watch in their newsletter asking for help from their readers.
They state it has recently come in and has "apparently" been recently overhauled by Omega in Switzerland
They state the dial and hands are Luminova and that it's a "service piece".
They are also perplexed by the orange hands and refer readers to a YouTube video where someone is discussing a Mark II for sale which also has orange hands.
In their sales description a week later they state while the watch has been "restored" by Omega it remains a "relatively rare all orange hands racing model".
My previous research into the Mark II had never uncovered such a variant which led me to making this post to see if anyone else has come across such a variant.
As a side note, the seller usually provides quite accurate sales descriptions of their watches but feel in this case they could have stated it's a service dial and the hands are not original to the watch rather than just "restored" by Omega.
Also, to claim it's a "relatively rare all orange hands racing model" is sloppy in comparison to their usually accurate descriptions.

It’s a mod using factory parts- not much different than a few other indi’s have done over the years and since lost their parts accounts. If you are gonna do these kinds of off-script mods as a factory service provider- then make sure your clientele doesn’t broadcast where they got it done nor sell them on your own website- you are flirting with getting your account pulled.

As has been said- there is 99% chance it didn’t come back from omega like that. It very well may have gone to Bienne and been serviced (would want to see that paperwork or it didn’t happen) but then someone put the orange hands on after that.

And I agree that it’s deceptive and a bit sketchy for the seller, who you say is a member here, to claim rarity without an extract to prove it came from the factory like this (or back from factory service like this)- which even if they had one may not specify hand color like an Ultraman.

It’s a cool modded watch that has service parts. It’s unique and attractive and doesn’t need the hyperbole or speculation of its originality to make the sales- just to justify the outrageous price. It’s about $2k too much for what it is (a franken at this point) and without factory confirmation that it came like that- isn’t rare or special- just cool.

Speedmaster Mark II racing dial with orange hour and minute hands?

omegaswisst

blufinz52

JwRosenthal

flqt-9000

omegaswisst

OneTwo

JimInOz

Scarecrow Boat

omegaswisst

omegaswisst

omegaswisst

Scarecrow Boat

Pastorbottle

omegaswisst

YY77

omegaswisst

JwRosenthal

omegaswisst

JwRosenthal

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