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
馃榿 !!
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/
