Two months ago, I had a burst of what-the-hell grabs off of eBay. I bought these two Ed Whites one day after the other, because they were going for what I thought was cheap. Here are the two previous threads: https://omegaforums.net/threads/updated-irresistible-impulse-two-105-003-65-ebay-buys.79624/ https://omegaforums.net/threads/two-ebay-ed-whites-part-two-they-arrive.79926/ They have both been serviced to my satisfaction and I’m wearing each of them in rotation. They both now keep good time and operate properly. I have not ‘swapped’ parts or changed bezels, hands or pushers. They are both too nice to be abused that way. The UK Ed White, on the whole, has been the better deal. The seller’s photos failed to reveal how nice the case is. I suspect this was not a heavily worn watch. Its sole major shortcoming is the lume loss in the hands. I replaced its B2 crown with an A1. My watchmaker told me it didn’t even need service. The Istanbul Ed White has had some problems, not all of which have been corrected yet. The movement was loose in the case when it arrived and the hands conflicted at one position to stop the movement. I discovered that the hour counter would not reset. As my watchmaker verified, it was Omega part 1734, the reset hammer. Omega hasn’t made them for years. But Omega Forum to the rescue. Found a thread and then a company in Germany that made the part. Ordered two. https://ernst-westphal.de/en/ The broken one and the spare one. It now resets properly. The loose movement appears to have been an issue with the caseback, curiously enough. At first, my watchmaker and I assumed it was the dust cover. I sourced a dust cover here (thank you again @Northernman ); meanwhile, my watchmaker ‘altered’ the dustcover that was already in it thusly: Ugly though this is, the fix corrected the problem. After Northerman’s dustcover arrived, I tried it in the Istanbul Ed. When that correct dustcover left the movement loose again, I more closely examined the back cover. It is bowed outward slightly when it should be flat. In all these photos, the Istanbul Ed caseback is on the left and the UK caseback is on the right There’s no obvious mark on the inside and the bowing is evenly distributed across the back. If the inside imprint wasn’t ‘right’, I’d begin to suspect that the caseback was a fabrication. But, it looks correct in every other respect. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s seen anything like this on any Ed White they’ve ever handled. Anyway, so I’m in the market for a decent 105.003-65 caseback. PM me, pretty please if you’ve got a spare. So, there you have it. I’m still pretty happy with these two Ed Whites. With over a dozen 321s now, I’ve discovered how finicky these movements can be, particularly after 50+ years of use/abuse. There was some skill in spotting them but a lot of luck that they were as good as they turned out to be. BTW, I have not bought another Speedmaster since, only two Seamaster chronographs from 1962, one in 14k yellow gold and the other in stainless steel (but more about that in a different thread). I suspect that I’ll continue to wear them daily for awhile, along with either my luminova -66CB or my Lemania Speedymoon at night. Each of them makes me smile when I glance at the time. And each has its own charm. I struggle with the thought that I probably shouldn’t keep them both, but that just makes me sad.
You can repair the bowed caseback by pushing on it with a crystal press. It takes a little finesse and if you go too far you can always do it again from the other side. Put something flat on the caseback and then use the press..
Has anybody done this and had it turn out okay? I assume that this process, even at its best, will still yield a backcover that does not entirely ‘look right’.