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airansun
·As encouragement to others searching for unobtainium, I offer the following tale, with a happy ending.
Here’s a series of photos showing the progression, from eBay listing to current disposition, of a 105.002-62 Speedmaster I picked up about eighteen months ago. It’s a rare reference (2,200 to 2,600 made: https://www.watchbooksonly.com/omeg...view-of-the-speedmaster-moonwatch-production/ ) and I couldn’t resist it, despite it having the wrong crown and wrong hands. It had a really nice bezel and a clean dial, albeit with dark tritium lume. Here are a couple of photos from the original listing:
When it arrived, it was obvious to me how badly it needed the proper hands. The search began.
I posted a WTB here and @oddboy helped out, offering me a set of period service hands that were the correct length and nicely matched the dial lume color. 👍 Thanks again @oddboy !
I continued to look in variety of places, but, I admit, I wasn’t looking quite as hard. I’ve learned many lessons trying to buy parts for old Speedmasters; one of the biggest ones is to trust almost no one else’s assessment of whether the part being offered is really correct for your vintage Speedmaster. And these alpha hands in particular are very tricky. Fortunately for another valuable resource, http://speedmaster101.com/blog/2998-alpha-hand-length/ , I was able to negotiate the minefield. Here’s a screen shot from that page:
I had some leads overseas that didn’t pan out and other instances where sellers stopped responding to me after I asked for photos of the hands against a ruler. 😒 I was hoping that eventually I’d get lucky here, where I’m far more likely to find a seller I can trust, particularly given how expensive the correct alpha hands are.
Instead, I finally got lucky on eBay earlier this year. The seller was selling both a damaged 2998 dial and 2998 hands, so I could see for myself that they were the correct length.
I brought the hands and watch to my watchmaker. The black lume in the hour hand fell out when he attempted to mount it, which I had mixed feelings about: while it was probably original lume, the color was ugly, worse in person than in the photos. He had tritium lume in one of those old fashioned relume sets and applied that. His first attempt.
I asked him if he could match the dial lume in the hands. He took old tritium lume from old watch hands he’s collected over the years, ground it into the newer tritium paste and then applied that. Here is the final result:
So, it didn’t take nearly as long as I feared. 😀
And no, I haven’t replaced the crown yet. The last eBay seller misrepresented the size of the crown he sold me and it don’t fit. Sigh.
It’s been in and out of my rotation ever since it arrived.
Labor on, brothers and sisters! Occasionally, your efforts will be rewarded!
Here’s a series of photos showing the progression, from eBay listing to current disposition, of a 105.002-62 Speedmaster I picked up about eighteen months ago. It’s a rare reference (2,200 to 2,600 made: https://www.watchbooksonly.com/omeg...view-of-the-speedmaster-moonwatch-production/ ) and I couldn’t resist it, despite it having the wrong crown and wrong hands. It had a really nice bezel and a clean dial, albeit with dark tritium lume. Here are a couple of photos from the original listing:
When it arrived, it was obvious to me how badly it needed the proper hands. The search began.
I posted a WTB here and @oddboy helped out, offering me a set of period service hands that were the correct length and nicely matched the dial lume color. 👍 Thanks again @oddboy !
I continued to look in variety of places, but, I admit, I wasn’t looking quite as hard. I’ve learned many lessons trying to buy parts for old Speedmasters; one of the biggest ones is to trust almost no one else’s assessment of whether the part being offered is really correct for your vintage Speedmaster. And these alpha hands in particular are very tricky. Fortunately for another valuable resource, http://speedmaster101.com/blog/2998-alpha-hand-length/ , I was able to negotiate the minefield. Here’s a screen shot from that page:
I had some leads overseas that didn’t pan out and other instances where sellers stopped responding to me after I asked for photos of the hands against a ruler. 😒 I was hoping that eventually I’d get lucky here, where I’m far more likely to find a seller I can trust, particularly given how expensive the correct alpha hands are.
Instead, I finally got lucky on eBay earlier this year. The seller was selling both a damaged 2998 dial and 2998 hands, so I could see for myself that they were the correct length.
I brought the hands and watch to my watchmaker. The black lume in the hour hand fell out when he attempted to mount it, which I had mixed feelings about: while it was probably original lume, the color was ugly, worse in person than in the photos. He had tritium lume in one of those old fashioned relume sets and applied that. His first attempt.
I asked him if he could match the dial lume in the hands. He took old tritium lume from old watch hands he’s collected over the years, ground it into the newer tritium paste and then applied that. Here is the final result:
So, it didn’t take nearly as long as I feared. 😀
And no, I haven’t replaced the crown yet. The last eBay seller misrepresented the size of the crown he sold me and it don’t fit. Sigh.
It’s been in and out of my rotation ever since it arrived.
Labor on, brothers and sisters! Occasionally, your efforts will be rewarded!
Edited:
