Interestingly (or not if you are Dennis) there is a 145.012-67 for sale on here right now with a higher serial than mine, by a few thousand. I wonder if they were chucking in any old movement back in 67-68. I am pretty confident mine is a -68 and that the caseback is right with the date being so late in the year but it does seem a little odd. I wonder what the delivery date there was. Curse the extract's lack of year iteration once more!
My dating tool...you mean like where squirrels who wear dresses and matching watches can find their ultimate mate?
Buying a 145.022-69 and getting a 145.012-68 sounds like a great deal (even with the service dial and hands). Congrats!
Fast forward to today and this arrived back in the post from STS. Watch is now serviced and wearing correct hands and flat foot crown. It still has the missing AML dial of course. The STS Workshop Manager suggested that it is likely a short lived service dial presumably from 1969-71 or so when the first printed logo step dials were rolled out. He suggested leaving it be for rarity value (he hasn't seen one before in the flesh) and the financial implications of replacing it mean I tend to agree!
Given that it's likely a vintage service dial that's been on the watch for decades, even if a correct dial was only in the hundreds of pounds, I'd keep that dial in situ. At this point it's far more 'correct' than an AML dial for that watch.