I've just joined, and I'm learning LOTS by just browsing. The answers to questions posted by other members are educating me in the best way possible. I'm gathering information every time I log in. I'm appreciative of this vicarious learning method, and will now ask a question that I haven't found an answer for...yet.

How uncommon is the "220" dial for the Speedmaster Professional? How much might it add to the value of a vintage Speedy?

Thanks!
Don

 

How uncommon is the "220" dial for the Speedmaster Professional?

No one knows definitively

How much might it add to the value of a vintage Speedy?

Depends on the watch it's attached to


You might get some info if your asking / looking bezel only. Search closed sales.

 

Thanks. The research is part of the fun, eh?...

 

It's the bezel, not the dial. It's addressed at speedmaster101.com, I tend to agree with the well respect author of that website who suggests it is very rare, but it is more of an interesting anomaly than value add driver. It's worth what folks are willing to pay for it

And welcome to the forum

 

Dang...I MEANT bezel...

 

This forum is great. Plus you learn a lot about other brands too!

As for 220's your not seeing much of a jump, as others have noted it's a curiosity, accepted on a specific time frame. DON bezels command high prices because so many watches that had them got serviced and the bezel was replaced not because of low numbers of production. People now need them to make a watch correct. As the 145.022-xx are going up in price we are starting to see the same thing in the post DON bezels that those watches should have. At this time the 220 and -74 dials which are also unique command little or no added value.

 

I'm not sure I'm cut out to be associating with REAL collectors. Although I have a lot of watches, and some of them seem to have some significant value (1948 IWC cal.89, '55 Omega cal. 54 bumper, '71 Constellation cal.751, the Speedy), along with some pretty nice "rescues" of '50's Elgins, Helbros', etc., and a bunch of real "tool" watches, like Seikos and Citizens, I have a hard time being as excited about what I have as many others. But then, again, I spend a LOT of time (to use my wife's terms) "messing with my watches". I'm not capable of doing more than changing bracelets/bands and maybe some surface cleaning...the idea of getting inside a watch scares me. I spent a lot of years servicing and repairing fishing reels and building custom rods, but an ultralight reel is as small as I'd ever go. Hell, I can't even SEE some of the components inside a watch! I DO enjoy 'em, though...and am really happy I found this site.

 

Great to have you here, don't worry about some being real collectors as we all start out somewhere.

I can pull a fishing reel apart at night with a head torch but have never been game
enough to take a caseback off. Sometimes it's good to know your limitations

 

When I got up the courage to remove a caseback for the first time, one look at the size of the screws and springs in there made me know right then and there that the most complex reels I ever tore down were HUGE compared to this stuff. That's part of why I have this "minor obsession" with the mechanical (and even a few quartz, like my Seiko 7a28-702a with 15 jewels and brass and steel gears) watches. Maybe some day I'll tackle an old alarm clock or something...