I'm still trying to figure out how this watch ended up on my wrist. About a month ago, I was perusing eBay and saw a listing for a pre-moon Speedmaster (full auction, not BIN). I was initially interested due to the DON bezel, as I had posted a WTB here and was striking out. I figured at a minimum, I could buy this, take the mint (like, actually mint) DON bezel off and then maybe take a $1K hit on re-sale / go on my way. I noticed in the listing that there seemed to be brown circles on the sub-dials, so I asked the seller if the dial had any "brown tint" in it and he said the walls in the room where it was photographed were yellow and it was likely due to that. Regardless, I placed a max bid at $6,500 and crossed my fingers.

Perhaps the summer doldrums are a real thing. The auction ran its full time and my winning bid was $5,800. I immediately thought I'd missed something...I've been buying Speedmasters for a while now, but this clearly wasn't a sub-$6K watch. After a few days, I got the package and it was confirmed...the rest of the Speedy world just missed this one! The lume on the dial was perfect, hands were in great shape (a little loss of lume on the minute hand, but perfectly matching patina), and the case was razor sharp and clearly unpolished. Oh, and that dial? It's in the middle of turning brown, alright. This quickly went from a speculative bezel purchase to a probable keeper.

I guess the moral of the story is to stay focused during the warm summer months, people! And now...on to the requisite photos:

 

You just made me feel better. I put in a bid for 6400. But my snipe bid didn’t go through for some reason. So at least you saved yourself. 700 usd.

 

Nicely done. Gems still out there!

 

I’ve had this happen before- you feel like you just found money on the ground and are waiting for it to be a prank or fake money.
Congrats on a great keeper.

 

Nice catch that is indeed a beautiful example

 

Haha, that’s incredible. I suppose we can both rest easy!

 

Well played .. considering what I paid for my browning and nice DON and bracelet, you got more than a bargain. Amazing the seller didn’t know what they had.

 

Nice catch. So will you put it under some grow-lights for a few months? ;-)

 

Dude. I was soo angry. I saw what it sold for. I was like wth. Where is my bid. I went to the sniper website. It said that something happened to my profile. Lol. But now that I know you would have beat me anyways. Lol. Def a good price for this one.

 

Karma will come back in your favor.

 

What actually kills me is knowing that sometimes I am bidding against people here. I know it’s not realistic and very overly optimistic but in a perfect world with no greed or competition someone could say-hey, I want this one- and everyone stands back

 

Beautiful watch and with a bracelet too. Congratulations.

 

To be clear, it didn’t come with a bracelet.

 

Oh well. That would have been a little too much luck.

 

Still you did great...

 

Bravo!

 

Good job, great reading Rob!

To qoute a famous athlete in Sweden ”the more I practice, the more luck I have”

I think the same applies to you

 

Great find. They are still out there, with a little patience.

 

Great pick up! Patience and a little luck paid off

 

Well done and great story