It all depends on the price you bought it and the importance the actual value plays for your passion of collecting old speedmasters.
I love to wear mine and do it for example in this second. To have this icon on the wrist is thrilling for the serious collector, wheras the non-collector (as my wife is e.g.) uses to say that she likes more the black bezel and slim hands

Today in office with a CK2915-1:

 

After years of collecting vintage Rolex, and having made a switch to Omega earlier this year, I am happy on multiple levels.

First and foremost, you can still get killer deals on great, original Omega examples for a fraction of what the equivalent Rolex would bring. But more importantly, the community is so much smaller, and you can get incredible insight from collectors like Spacefruit, Achim, and everyone else on here that has the passion and knowledge of vintage Omega.

To have collectors expertly handling watches at auction, and relaying their findings and opinions on here is priceless for collectors such as myself.

 

Hey watchknut, maybe this is a thread of its own, but I was wondering what brought you to omega from Rolex. Is it all about value per dollar, or something else?

 

How often do people recognize that watch when you wear it?!

 

I have never noticed that somebody realized that I was wearing an iconic collectors watch maybe worth 100k or more on my wrist. So I can wear and enjoy that great watch completely easygoing.
When somebody is taking notice of it I can see that he or she thinks: Wow, grandpa's scratchy and rugged watch he wears. Even those who should know it better because I see that they wear a Speedmaster by themselfs do only look at my wrist with irritation about that shiny bezel and those strange broad arrow.

Side by side to a "normal" black bezel Speedmaster, especially when it is from 1963 or younger, coming with the black rehaut, the 2915 looks very delicate and ways smaller allthought there is almost no difference in size. A few millimeters at the bezel, no more.

 

I sometimes wear my 2915-2 too.
People just think it's a common vintage watch.

 

I had a friend who stopped wearing his Daytona when he was offered 30k by a stranger in a mall.

Speedmasters are so far discrete.

 

Well I would certainly stop you and ask many questions! Nice watch.

Part of the appeal to me - very few notice, even the more modern examples.

 

It is a great idea for a thread, and I will start it.

It is a combination of things. I got my first vintage Omega at an estate auction in 1987, and my first vintage Rolex the same year, when I was 8 years old. My collecting continued through my youth, buying affordable watches $5-100 that I found at flea markets and antique shows. While I always liked Omega, my dad wore one for 20 years, in college I started flipping vintage Rolex because it is what I knew, and that is where the money was.

I always kept an eye on the market, and when opportunities presented themselves, I would pick up affordable examples of original condition Rolex sport models. I would sell current watches in my collection, take profits, and get my cost basis down on the more sizable Rolex purchase.

Now I have a nice little collection of MKIV 1680 Red Sub, birthyear 1680 white Sub with b/ps in great condition, and a birthyear 1665 Great White. While I would love to add some to the collection, my budget does not allow it, and honestly, I don't think that I could stomach paying $8-15K for future acquisitions that met my criteria as original examples with patina. I would never buy my current collection at the market rates.

I like dive watches, and not including the relatively unobtainable outliers like the early big crown Subs, a Sub is a Sub--not a lot of differences with the exception of the dial, and ultimately to the collector, the patina on said dial and hands, between any 5512, 5513 or 1680, and the same goes for 1665. They are all basically the same watch, and the nuances of Rolex are what drive the value--nuances that Rolex never intended.

Enter Omega.

There so much more choice! Speedmasters, Seamasters, Flightmasters...you name it, a ton of awesome tool watches out there to be had, many of them from the first owners, with killer patina and factory finishes--at pennies on the Rolex dollar.

These watches are just as a high a quality as any Rolex, and in most cases, have superior patina and the same tropical tendencies.

This year has fun. I got an all original PloProf from the grandson of the original owner who was a professional diver. The equivalent DRSD in the same condition would have been 8x the money. I got an all original 166.091 1 owner will killer patina and factory finish, and based on what I paid, the equivalent 1680 would have been 20x. My 165.024 with killer patina was 1/3 of the equivalent 5513. My birthyear 145.022 in amazing original condition was 1/3 of any birthyear Rolex sport model on the market...and hell, I got a 105.012, albeit is has issues, for $1k!

To acquire the equivalent Rolex models would take a very large bank account and a lot of time. I happened upon these pieces in the last two months, and got absolute steals on a majority of them. Because Omega made so many models over such a long period of time, the ebay algorithms send sellers down the wrong path, and they way undervalue their pieces. This does not happen with Rolex. Period.

So yes, it is mainly bang for your buck, but I also like the choice, availability, parts, ease of service, and the much smaller community.

 

This makes sense. Do you think there are potential buyers with that kind of budget waiting for such a piece to turn up?

 

@Ash, dibs!

(ok, out of my price range, but had to say it)

 

If a true NOS example would be worth $500k, would it possible for someone to machine a new case and produce exact dies for the caseback?

With that amount of money at play, it seems like it is possible to create an exact replica and blend in real parts from a watch with an extract.

 

The 500k theory includes that there is a 100 % circulum vitae of the watch will all papers, bills and boxes included.
This, I suppose, does not exist. And this is why buying with some time typical patina is much safer
Faking a chocolate turning dial and the typical corrosion signs of the case is much harder if not impossible

 

Is it possible for someone to machine an extra replica case and give it a slight patina?

 

Good point. As these are toolwatches with movements produced in thousands of units it goes without saying that they are more or less replicable.
The same does not apply to original minute repeaters by Breguet or other fine complicated watches. In such cases the value is real because reflects the cost of manufacturing.
What will happen to these industrial specimens in ten years' time nobody knows. For the moment just surf the wave if you like.

 

Values in a collectors markets usually do not follow the aspect of effort necessary to produce (or fake) the desired collectors item.
The easier the faking is the more you need to pay attention what you get. Not more and not less than that.

The blue Mauritius Post office stamp is a little sheet of printed paper and it went for millions....

 

The reason that I bring this up is that you can fake just about then

I tend to agree, as I think the main reason why extreme fakes do not exist is that a collector with the knowledge to produce such a fake, would never do so.

For example, I collect early American silver, specifically pieces that were produced in the South prior to 1850. One form that is incredibly popular and valuable is the julep cup. Cups made by Kentucky silvermiths have the most value, and certain makers bring more than others. Cups that were produced for agriculture premiums (awards) bring even more.

What is scary is that I can commission my silversmith to make an exact replica of a known cup, down to the measurements and weight, and have a die made that is exact same as a known maker, like Asa Blanchard. My silversmith can patinate the cup and distress the makers mark, even put in little dents, dings and creases. If I want to really get creative, I can get my engraver to match the exact engraving of known premium cup, and the silversmith can polish the engraving to make it look it has been polished for 150 years.

All in all, to replicate this cup would cost around $1k, yet has a value of $3.5-5k in the market. Of course I would never do this, but it can be done.

I mean if you can spend $10, 20, or $30k and then sell something for north of 6 figures, I can see a lot of reasons for someone to go to all of the trouble.

Hopefully it is not done, and the vintage Omega clan, as shown by the posters in this thread, learn from the mistakes of the Rolex wave, and bring to light all potential issues with high profile watches that come on the market.

 

Yes, but in the long run a post office stamp will go back to the value of a little sheet of printed paper. The Nafea Faa Ipoipo by Paul Gauguin will hold its value. Why? The first, as you state, is a little sheet of printed paper, the second is a masterpiece.

 

hm, might be right might be wrong.

Immaterial value can be very very very high and it is phyiscally completely detached from any material. A very good and recent example in our beloved Speedmaster world: A simple and of average condition 145.022-69 ST at christies achieves 245k USD simply because it was in an EVA mission:
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/...5140&sid=c180f61c-613e-4039-9617-6c716f33c488

It is only the immaterial value that makes this demand and it is not lost over the years but opposite. Gaugin as well is nothing but colour and paper. But his work is from cultural relevance and this as well is nothin but an immaterial value. So to me the only question is, which cultural relevance a CK 2915 has for a Speedmaster Collector. The answer is easy. If there is a significant relevance for mankind, well, I doubt that ....

If people stop being interested in Speedmasters they will stop being interested in the 2915, not earlier.