Vintage Speedmaster with replacement movement?

Hello,

I am looking at a vintage moon watch which has a 145022-76 ST case back for $1500 that is also in need of service (not running). All of the features appear to be correct for that case back/model accept the movement? The movement has a 45.254.xxx serial number. From what I can tell, this movement serial number range should fall in the 81-88 years?

Overall, the watch is somewhere in the to fair to good cosmetic range. I am looking at it for a daily driver so to speak and wanted to get your thoughts on this. Either the movement was replaced or the case back? What does this do to the value of the watch?

Thank you!

Hello,

I would suggest you to post pictures because like this is really hard to give you any valuable advice.

To be honest 1.5k for a 145022-76 ST is a way too low price, to start with. Did you do some due diligence on this seller?

Thanks for the quick response! I will try and get photos soon. The seller is a close friend who inherited the watch and is not interested in it.

If a Speed (or even other watches) had problems 30-40 years ago, such as water or rust inside, the watchmaker found easier and cheaper to replace the entire movement.
It was normal, and no one complained.
The customer was happy to go home with the watch in working order.
Today that normality turns into a very high price difference.

Buy it. It's less than the value of the parts. Service it. Wear it. Be happy. Only if you want to sell it, attend to the case back problem.

At that price I would buy it right away. Movement (or case back) was probably replaced but at that price point it does not really matter.

$ 1500 is more than fair to me. Just buy it before your friend changes his mind or start to Google it ....