Question for Easter sunday . How many speedmaster's did Omega produce before the moon-landing on the 20/07/1969 ?
Look forward to your comments

 

Hey Steve,

MSNWatch made this comment on another thread recently.

" The speedmaster numbers are relatively low and for the 2915 and 2998 models come to about 12,000 total - about 1,000 for each of the 11 different iterations over about 5 years or so."

https://omegaforums.net/threads/the-irony-of-speedy-price-increases.23688/#post-259769

That gets you to about '62. I don't have my MWO book handy for the rest.. I'm sure others will have more info.

 

Food for thought ! Started looking the other night for a number ,but there's to much conflicting info to get a true number .

 

MWO (The bible) estimates that approx 80,000-85,000 Speedmasters with the 321 movement were produced.

 

Well that's not really rare, is it? So there must still be a lot of DON bezels around (where we have seen a big inflation recently)

 

If you break it down to number of iterations it could make for low volumes for some series. Consider eight iterations of the 2998 alone

 

Yes, you are all correct with your comments. I totally agree with the first references. But let's see 145.012 - according to MWO there is an estimation of 27-28'000 pieces. That's not too rare, but still there the prices are rising.

 

I wonder how many 321s of that 85k are really left? A certain percentage have been tossed away or lost, some have been cannibalized for parts, some have been damaged beyond repair, some have lost most of their desirability due to incorrect replacement parts, etc. I don't know enough to even hazard a guess, but of those 85k how many are even in "running" condition or better according to the Speedmaster101 chart? And of that subset, I suspect the majority have already been discovered by collectors, dealers, and enthusiasts. Very few are left in the family of the original owner waiting for me to find at market value or below.

 

Excellent point and I agree that compared to other watches of the era they have a better survival rate for all those reasons. But I just wonder how many have been simply lost. I doubt many were intentionally thrown out or dumped, but 50+ years is a mighty long time to keep track of an item. I remember going through all of my grandfather's stuff after he passed and having trouble locating all of his WWII medals. He and the whole family had been very proud of them and we had done our best (so we thought) to keep them in safe places, but after a few moves and a few times when the bank branch where his deposit box was closed some of that stuff just disappeared.

 

I wonder how many have been sitting in drawers for 30-50 years and the owners have no idea what they have or have forgotten about them.