I believe production has now ceased for the Speedmaster "Tintin" 1. Do we have production dates/years for the Speedy Tintin? 2. Any guesstimates at production number - 400 was a figure I read in a forum post, but unconfirmed. 2. Can anyone add any Serial numbers outside of the 77.764.8xx - 77.797.9xx range Cheers
I've jokingly said to a few watch friends "I am the world's foremost expert on the Omega Speedmaster "Tintin" watch". Of course this is not true but I've owned three of these watches so far, so I'm allowed to pretend. Production dates: the watch was first announced by Omega in early 2013, @Robert-Jan reported that the watch was quietly released before Baselworld that year. This makes sense to me, Omega had a lot of major announcements that year at Basel, the 15,000 Gauss movement, the Dark Side of the Moon, the introduction of Sedna Gold, etc. No room for poor little Tintin Speedy, which is the main reason it flew completely under the radar this whole time - there was never any marketing of this variation of the moonwatch. It was just tacked onto to the "steel on steel" Moonwatch collection with no fanfare, headlines, or story. First reference on the Omega website seems to be in April, and May 2013: https://web.archive.org/web/2013042...dmaster/professional-moonwatch/31130423001004 https://web.archive.org/web/2013052...dmaster/professional-moonwatch/31130423001004 I assume production started roughly in that same time-frame, say 1H2013. Production seems to have been completed in roughly mid-2014, there are quotes from Omega folks saying as much, so this seems fairly reliable. A person I spoke with from Omega, but not someone I would say is authoritative, told me they had allocated a set number of 861 movements for a new Speedy project, and he said the number was very low (and he further advised me to hang onto my Tintin as in the future the value would go way up because of the limited production... but what Omega person doesn't say that about every Omega timepiece?). He continued, the Tintin concept had been sitting on the shelf, having previously been shot down, but this time it got the ok to move forward as a concept for this allocation. The deal with Moulinsart subsequently falls through, and so they remove the copyright element but proceed with the basic design and production begins. Number of Tintin's made: this is the biggest mystery with this timepiece, and the reality is that we may never know for sure. It's not numbered or limited, but there are people inside Omega that know, and they are not talking. In the absence of facts, and given this is the Internet - wild speculation will do just fine !! Numbers as small as 400, and as large as 5000 have been tossed around (ok, I'm tossing out the 5000 number here for the first time, I figured we need an upper bound and that's as good a number as any). Personally, I think the real number is between those two extreme's. 400 is so small that I don't really think Omega would have commissioned a new project for it, without coming right out saying "limited edition", and thus driving up the price point. We know Omega is fond of LE's being 2k or more, why would they knowingly make ~500 without the LE tag? Further, it seems reasonable to me there had to have been more movements allocated for this project, than could have just been dumped into making more standard Speedy Pro's. Why go through the hassle of special dial production for just a few hundred pieces? What makes the really low figure plausible, is the collapse of the deal with Moulinsart.. it could be Omega responded by stopping production, modifying what had already been made and just pushing those out. More anecdotal data: There has been a reliable supply of TIntin's that have been available in the resale market for the last year. If there were really only a few hundred, I don't see the resale market being this liquid. Name another piece, even if completely unloved, with as few as 400 pieces, that has seen a steady stream of available pieces in resale? I can't think of any. Omega boutiques could sell you a Tintin up until very recently, well past last date of production, so that suggests a reasonable number in the supply chain at the retail level. EDIT: In May 2017, In a discussion I had with Jean-Claude Monachon, VP of Omega Product Development, he suggested there were about 3000 made (he did not know the precise figure off the top of his head)... EDIT: In July 2018, Robert-Jan Broer asserted there were less than 2000 made. RJ is very credible, so I'm once again revising my estimate here, based on his assertion: So... that leaves us back where we started... HOW MANY? Here's the estimates, corrections, and now current estimate: 1600 2600 3000 <2000 Serial #'s: I've completely given up trying to reverse engineer information based on movement serial numbers. References: @Robert-Jan has done the best reporting by far on this (and probably is the most knowledgeable person outside Omega), I highly recommend anyone interested in this topic to go read all his stuff http://www.fratellowatches.com/speedy-tuesday-omega-speedmaster-pro-tintin/ http://www.fratellowatches.com/speedy-tuesday-true-story-about-the-new-speedmaster-racing/ http://www.fratellowatches.com/speedy-tuesday-omega-speedmaster-pro-racing/ https://disqus.com/home/discussion/fratello/speedy_tuesday_omega_speedmaster_pro_tintin/
Thanks for the great response to my question, Repoman. Very much appreciated. Certainly in my eyes, you are "...the world's foremost expert on the Omega Speedmaster "Tintin" watch" . I certainly agree with your analysis as to the number of Tintin's made though I like to think that the plausibility of a quick end to production after the deal with Moulinsart fell through is well on the agenda. Time will tell, no doubt. Placing an upper production limit is a sensible notion and 5000 is not unreasonable and certainly a safe boundary limit. Why would Omega keep mum about the number? I know very little about company marketing and price control, but there must be some arcane reason to keep the shutters down on numbers produced. Anyway, I'll be holding on to my Tintin as everything about that dial sings long and loud to me...
Actually that whole Tintin story reminds me of Coca Cola refusing to be mentioned in the lyrics of Lola by The Kinks whereby they were forced to change it to Cherry-Cola. Or the recording company that knocked back the Beatles (whoever they were). Or the Australian government knocking back the the Black Box recorder...I suppose the list of shortsightedness is never ending.
I have said before that I'm not keen on the various 'special editions', but I'm getting quite hooked on this Tintin version and I like the 'history' and mystery associated with it, so well added-to by repoman's great post. I don't really like the red chequers purely aesthetically, but I like the idea of it lots.
Tintin, The Kinks, The Beatles - all good stuff and a great example of how a 'chat' about a watch dial can go off on some highly entertaining tangents.
You could use the 'Mark-recapture method' which is generally used to estimate fish populations, to get an idea of total numbers. Basically for a given population (fish, or in this case Tintin Speedys), you catch several individuals and tag them (or make a note of the serial), and monitor the rate at which new catches are already tagged (already noted serial no) or not yet tagged (new serial no). You can then run this through an equation to give an estimate of the population size. Obviously accuracy is related to sample size.
Very interesting Davidt3449. Known sample: 77727.1xx, 77764.8xx 77776.7xx 77777.1xx 77777.5xx 77780.5xx 77780.7xx, 77796.9xx 77797.xxx 77797.5xx 77797.9xx I am not sure, but with the "Mark-recapture" or Lincoln-Peterson Method applied to non biological populations is that the tagged sample can't re-distribute themselves back into a population and left to mingle for a suitable period of time. Once captured they stay captured and can't be drawn from again in a statistical meaningful way, at least I think that's the case. Any statisticians or math wizards among us who can explain?
During my undergrad we practised this by standing at a taxi rank and noting taxi numbers. Thee are issues with sampling as large experienced fish are less likely to get caught, recently caught fish are more defensive and less likely to be caught again, just like the odd taxi will take a large long distance fare, one watch will find its way into a long term collection and more may be flipped a couple of times in succession. Nevertheless, over a reasonable time period, I think it'll give a reasonable estimate of production numbers.
The Tin Tin was quietly introduced and quietly discontinued. The watch never really sold for some reason, thats until recently. @repoman is right there have been a few on the open market of late but you can still find them in some ADs and Boutiques. I will look at my serial later.
Oui, mais il pourrait être meilleur pour tous si vous traduisez en anglais d'abord ...but It might be better if you translate from French to English at your end first.