A couple months ago, I reluctantly let go of a nice '66 Speedy to make room for a larger acquisition. But ever since, I've been yearning to fill the void in the box with the "real" moonwatch. But late last week, I had the opportunity to acquire a reasonably well preserved 105.012. From what I can tell, it is unpolished, original xtal, bracelet, mint dial and terrific, slightly faded DON bezel insert. I've only had it for a few hours and lightly buffed the deep gouges from the xtal and cleaned up the bracelet a little bit in the ultrasonic bath. I'm pretty happy with it and if I try to sell it, please knock me over the head. If you see any irregularities, please point them out.







uber sharp case:




Of course the obligatory wristshot:


I will have to replace the crown with the original at some point:


And here she is with her older brother:

 

Superb duo! Congrats!

 

Lovely macro shots! that case looks amazing!

 

Congrats, watch looks great!

 

Very nice!!! The watch looks amazing !!

 

Very nice combo!

 

Wowwww incredible condition... congrats

 

Very nice watch.
The case is, as you said, terrific.
However, there's something about the hands that seems weird.
Am I wrong ?

 

Better to own a couple of fine examples, than huge collection of crap... nice work

 

I couldn't agree more!

 

Really like it! It's what I hope my 105.012 will look like after it's service. That ultra sonic treatment on the bracelet looks great. It's exactly what my watch needs. Nice to see how good the results can be. The crisp clean lines on the case look really cool. So much better than examples that are over polished.

Great photographs! Two beautiful examples of the Speedmaster side by side.
thanks for sharing them with us.

 

Really fantastic example - congrats!

 

Surprised how light the luma patina is, not suggesting something is wrong, just used to seeing a little more color. My 145-012 has a lot more color.

 

Fantastic pick up. Congratulations.

 

I've checked with some folks more knowledgeable than myself on this particular model. All agree that it's just a really well preserved example of an all original 105.012-66HF. Lume glow of hands/dial plots are exactly the same in the dark. Regardless, I don't think the hands would have been a deal breaker for me in acquiring it. The combo of case, dial and bezel were the things I was looking for.

Being from the vintage Rolex side most of the past decade or so, I'm a relative noob when it comes to Speedys. But my intent was to collect one good example of watches worn in each of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. I'm about 2/3 of the way there I suppose. I guess my next target should be an Ed White....?

 

Dibs !

 

Your 105.012 looks really good, also the color of the lume looks good to me. I'm just a bit confused that the lume is not applied straight, it looks a bit curved, especially at the inner ends. This normaly I dont see on "original" lume.

 

That case is so sharp you could cut yourself - lovely watch all round.

 

I think the original crown for a 105.012 would have 32 ridges.

 

I'm by no means an expert as I only own 2 cal 321 Speedys, but here is a comparison of the lume application on the plots of my (allegedly) all original 2998-6 and the 105.012:



The "inner ends" of the lume plots are curved in both cases.

In my experience with vintage Rollies, I would say the grain and texture of my 66 Speedy lume is just about right for tritium of that era. I have no idea if the correct application of the lume should be straight/square or not as I am not experienced enough at this point. Because the lume is a pasty goop when applied, I would think the natural tendency for a raised plot would generally be rounded; the end result dictated by the viscosity of the lume paste during application as well as the surface tension of said paste. I would like to see other examples of straight/square lume plots at the macro level to compare more throughly if anyone has any.