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BenBagbag
·Heads up on the speedy: It should have a DON bezel IIRC.
Stop me! I’m about to commit a terrible sin!
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gostang9
·Interesting twist to the story.
The moral is: this forum is a VERY dangerous place.
Knappo1308 just made me an offer I could not refuse on his modded watch. So, I did not refuse.
I had no intention of buying one, let alone two watches today. I’m blaming this forum.
It’s what Hannibal Lector said: “How do we begin to covet? We begin to covet by what we see every day.” How am I supposed to tolerate ALL this eye candy, every day, day after day.
Seems it will work out well for both of you. He made the sale, and you no longer have to stress about whether or not to mod the vintage watch you have coming.
FWIW, I own 2 lovely modifies Panda dial Speedies (Apollo 11 35th and Gemini IV). The first I bought the pieces and had someone modify it, the second I bought already modified. Both gave me an authentic Speedy with all authentic Omega parts (that Omega willingly sold to someone along the way) and both for about half the cost of an authentic LE version. I would love to own the actual LE’s, but getting to wear and appreciate the look for half the price won in the end for me.
Congrats on your purchase(s) and enjoy. Thinking through every decision too much takes the fun out of it, so just enjoy them when they arrive!
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airansun
·So, he made me an offer so great that I felt completely swept downstream, an offer much better than I’d ever have dared ask for when I was thinking of contacting him in the first place.
More credit to him; I know what replicating what he did would have cost me. I got a great deal. You can’t always choose when a deal deal presents itself. You can only decide whether to pull the trigger.
More credit to him; I know what replicating what he did would have cost me. I got a great deal. You can’t always choose when a deal deal presents itself. You can only decide whether to pull the trigger.
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ulackfocus
·Sounds like everyone wins here.
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Reddy_Kilowatt
·Sounds like everyone wins here.
Does this mean no PVC coating?
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Interstellar
·Alternately you can mod using a modern Speedy, less painful this way...
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larryganz
·Interesting twist to the story.
The moral is: this forum is a VERY dangerous place.
Knappo1308 just made me an offer I could not refuse on his modded watch. So, I did not refuse.
I had no intention of buying one, let alone two watches today. I’m blaming this forum.
It’s what Hannibal Lector said: “How do we begin to covet? We begin to covet by what we see every day.” How am I supposed to tolerate ALL this eye candy, every day, day after day.
Good move buying the modded watch. I wanted to install a Mitsukoshi or white Italian dial onto my 145.022-74 but I quickly chickened out after I bought the parts - I just couldn't bring myself to mod the vintage watch.
After 2 years I finally picked up a 2013 Speedy 3570.50 last month, plus a 2005 Speedy 3572.50 arrived today, so that I could do my two mods and decide which one I like the most, and possibly rolling one of them back to stock if I didn't like one or the other mod. Both watches ended up being a bit less costly that your 145.022-69 as a donor watch, with impeccable and sharp looking cases and bracelets.
I'm not gonna mod the 3570.50 until it's due for a service after this October, but the 3572.50 is at my watchmaker right now getting checked out immediately after arrival. He's first going to test it on the bench, and also inspect the movement to see if it's well lubricated, so we can decide whether it needs to be serviced at the same time, since service history is unknown. If it needs parts that I don't already have then it will have to go to Omega first (I have a mainspring, pushers and crown, and wont have to use my spare hands, crystal, or bezel).
If everything looks good and I don't need to send it back to the seller, then we'll install the white Italian dial with black hands, red sweep second hand, and 15 pulsations bezel. = paramedic mod.
It sucks that it was missing 4 links which was not disclosed in the auction, so tomorrow I'm picking up 3 links that the OB is holding for me, otherwise I can't wear it without going to a strap or NATO. I might have been able to scavenge 3 spare links from my 3570.50 and my Seamaster 1610 bracelet, but then I'd have no spares if my wrist swells up for the summer.
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airansun
·Good move buying the modded watch. I wanted to install a Mitsukoshi or white Italian dial onto my 145.022-74 but I quickly chickened out after I bought the parts - I just couldn't bring myself to mod the vintage watch.
Yup, I may not have the heart, particularly now.
This all started for what may seem like a silly reason to some: I wear a watch to bed. I’m a very light sleeper and wake regularly in the middle of the night. If it’s not automatic and easy, i.e., where to look and being able to clearly visualize it, I wind up waking up more and then have more trouble falling back to sleep. This was one of the attractions of my original Speedmaster, a 145-022-74, whose tritium lume used to glow most of the night when I first got it in ‘82.
So I wind up wearing one of my modern Speedmasters to bed. These are all limited editions or moonphase Speedmasters. I’d like to be able to wear a vintage watch in bed (?!!)
I did consider just buying a current Speedmaster or buying a more recent one to mod it. But, now I have a confession:
I will always remember passing a sales showcase in a Macy’s in the late 80’s. They were having a sale on Speedmaster Professional Moonwatches and had the case completely filled, top to bottom, with one Speedmaster after another, all in their boxes with little tags showing mark downs of 30% or so off list. Hundreds of them, jammed together like they were in a rush hour subway car. The sale price was under $600, but I don’t recall exactly. It made me sick at heart. The Speedmaster on my wrist no longer felt special or unique to me. And, somehow, all those new mid-80’s Speedmasters looked like cheaper products than my -74.
That feeling comes back whenever I see those 1861 gold colored movements from the 80’s. I can live with the later rhodium plated movements, but everyone knows REAL Omegas have copper plated movements. Hence my decision to try to mod a pre 80’s Speedmaster, which got me to this moment.
I’ll post pictures of the continuing saga and my thoughts.
Thanks for everyone’s feedback.
My favorite threads are where the OP takes risks, exposing his thinking for the group’s reflection. These are the threads I learn the most from.
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airansun
·Btw, I’m also doing another messed up Speedy thing. Some guy in France listed a put together ‘Speedymoon’ with the correct case, a luminova service dial without metal rings around the subdials and a “Lemania“ moonphase movement identical to a 866/1866, but having been ‘tuned’ by Schwarz Etienne and adjusted.
Seller’s photo. Can’t read the serial number, but it looks like 44,xxx,xxx, which would put it in the right Omega serial number range for a first generation Speedymoon.
I was sooo curious that I lowballed it and got it. I’ve got to examine this thing and maybe make some Omega inquiries.
But I’ll post that story separately when that watch arrives.
Seller’s photo. Can’t read the serial number, but it looks like 44,xxx,xxx, which would put it in the right Omega serial number range for a first generation Speedymoon.
I was sooo curious that I lowballed it and got it. I’ve got to examine this thing and maybe make some Omega inquiries.
But I’ll post that story separately when that watch arrives.
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Kwijibo
·All I can say is I have a few moded ones. For me it's a pragmatic choice. Buying a 10k watch just for a serial number is really a pain in the a.
When I wear them I just see the face anyway. Go ahead and do it. I have one for sell 😜
When I wear them I just see the face anyway. Go ahead and do it. I have one for sell 😜
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rcs914
·The mod/don't mod discussions remind me of my car days. The Porsche guys generally believed that if the part didn't come from the Pfactory in Zuffenhausen then it was not worthy. As a result, there is very little available for aftermarket mod parts. In the meantime, the guys on the Corvette Forum are of the opinion that if it makes it faster/prettier it's good. There's a bunch of aftermarket stuff to mod your Vette.
Just put a Vette engine in the 911, and problem solved!
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larryganz
·Btw, I’m also doing another messed up Speedy thing. Some guy in France listed a put together ‘Speedymoon’ with the correct case, a luminova service dial without metal rings around the subdials and a “Lemania“ moonphase movement identical to a 866/1866, but having been ‘tuned’ by Schwarz Etienne and adjusted.
Seller’s photo. Can’t read the serial number, but it looks like 44,xxx,xxx, which would put it in the right Omega serial number range for a first generation Speedymoon.
I was sooo curious that I lowballed it and got it. I’ve got to examine this thing and maybe make some Omega inquiries.
But I’ll post that story separately when that watch arrives.
Hahahah! You've got the bug now and it's gonna kill you.
I feel like as long as the watch is advertised as what it really is, that the term modded watch sounds better than FrankenWatch. This moon phase sounds like a modded watch to me, and a franken to others. I think the Moonphase is pretty cool, and keep thinking someday I'll drop some cash on one. And then life gets in the way.
I also wear a watch to bed (your previous post), and my 145.022-74 is too dim to tell time at night. Believe it or not, my sleep watch is usually my Ti Planet Ocean 9300 that I wear 90% of the time during the day as well. It's heavy and bulky even in Ti, but for many years I preferred a lighter watch like my Luminox Colormark 3157 at bedtime. I've been planning to put the Planet Ocean on the winder at night and go back to my Luminox with tritium gas tubes. It's the watch that kept me company in the hospital for three weeks after a bad car crash in Dec 2014.
I've recently put most of my mechanical watches in the safe when I'm not wearing them (like when I was traveling recently), instead of filling up all 17 spots on my winders like the old days. So right now my only watches on the winder are my Victorinox Dive Master 500 (beater auto), Omega Ti Planet Ocean 9300, Omega Speedmaster Date, and Seiko PADI, plus 2-3 Moonwatches next to the bed where I can wind them when I need one (2 of the 3 have working lume).
Of course I have a plethora of quartz watches that I can grab and go with the correct time already programmed in, like my Omega SMP Bond Quartz and Omega X-33 Solar Impulse, or my several Swiss Luminox, Victorinox, and TAGs (and even my Japanese or solar Citizen, Casio, and Seiko watches). All of these have great lume including my Japanese divers, except not so much with the Citizen perpetual calendar chronographs.
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airansun
·If I don’t like the movement, I’ll swap it with the 1866 in my 3576.50. I sooo much prefer the service dial, which is with luminova (unlike the tritium Speedymoon dial) but without the silly rings around the subdials on the 3576.50, which I strongly dislike.
I’d also like to get away from the sapphire sandwich and get back to hesalite and a real case back. I couldn’t easily put hesalite in this, but the modded watch comes in the right hesalite case.
I’ve been trying to research Lemania moonphase chronometer movements in the 80’s. Here are two examples, movements then faces:
I couldn’t find any other watches from that era that ‘looks like a manual wind, moonphase chronometer with dials set up like an 866/1866’.
I’ve noticed that in the first movement, the serial number is in the 4,000,000 range, not the 44,000,000 range like the Speedymoon 866s.
Anyway, I’m very curious to get it and open the back.
But, the watch has disappeared somewhere on its way to me, maybe in US Customs. Seller sent it via what becomes USPS, which does nothing to assist getting stuff thru customs. When DHL brought a watch over from the Neatherlands, they called me twice regarding the customs declaration the shipper had mis-filled out. The package was only delayed a day. According to what I’ve read online, USPS contacts you by mail. Great.
I’ve never owned a winder. I suffer with automatics, to the extent they have day functions. And I’ve never owned a quartz watch. But, let’s not start that discussion here.
The Lemania movements do not look nearly as nicely finished as the typical 866/1866s. The Schwartz Etienne movement looks better finished than the Lemania, but maybe not as nice as Omega’s. Hard to tell from the photo. Like I said, I can’t wait.
“Tick, tock Clarice”
I’d also like to get away from the sapphire sandwich and get back to hesalite and a real case back. I couldn’t easily put hesalite in this, but the modded watch comes in the right hesalite case.
I’ve been trying to research Lemania moonphase chronometer movements in the 80’s. Here are two examples, movements then faces:
I couldn’t find any other watches from that era that ‘looks like a manual wind, moonphase chronometer with dials set up like an 866/1866’.
I’ve noticed that in the first movement, the serial number is in the 4,000,000 range, not the 44,000,000 range like the Speedymoon 866s.
Anyway, I’m very curious to get it and open the back.
But, the watch has disappeared somewhere on its way to me, maybe in US Customs. Seller sent it via what becomes USPS, which does nothing to assist getting stuff thru customs. When DHL brought a watch over from the Neatherlands, they called me twice regarding the customs declaration the shipper had mis-filled out. The package was only delayed a day. According to what I’ve read online, USPS contacts you by mail. Great.
I’ve never owned a winder. I suffer with automatics, to the extent they have day functions. And I’ve never owned a quartz watch. But, let’s not start that discussion here.
The Lemania movements do not look nearly as nicely finished as the typical 866/1866s. The Schwartz Etienne movement looks better finished than the Lemania, but maybe not as nice as Omega’s. Hard to tell from the photo. Like I said, I can’t wait.
“Tick, tock Clarice”
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airansun
·So, the modded watch from knappo1307 arrived today!
Thank you knappo1307 again!
The ‘donor’ 145-022-69 arrives Monday. Will post photos.
Thank you knappo1307 again!
The ‘donor’ 145-022-69 arrives Monday. Will post photos.
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jaguar11
·Have fun and enjoyment from your property!!!!!!!!
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Archer
··Omega Qualified Watchmaker"Stop me! I’m about to commit a terrible sin!"
My afternoon musical choice also...
My afternoon musical choice also...
