Hi Guys Thinking of buying this 3870.50 from 1998. The patina looks quite nice in my opinion; but two things confuse me a bit. I thought that Tritium Speedmaster watches where produced until 1997. Other than that the watch seems to be in quite nice overall conditions (but not serviced sind 22 Years!). As I'm not a Speedmaster expert; is there anything wrong / not fitting with the watch? -> I was not able to spot anything. And what do you think is a fair price for a watch in this condition (it's an auction, just to avoid overpaying). Thx a lot & wish you a nice sunday!
Although it was purchased in 1998, who knows how long it was sitting in the AD’s case before then? Thus, the tritium dial. It all looks good to me, but I’m not an expert. Just plan to have it serviced immediately if you buy it.
Good point. Since the seller appears to have the complete, original kit, one wonders if he replaced the bracelet after the purchase and sold the original, or perhaps asked the AD to swap out the bracelet at the time of purchase.
Overall, looks pretty nice, can't see any real obvious refinishing/polishing, personally, have no real pricing advice, but, as Don Chambers advised, plan on a $700 service. Unless you get someone in the auction that REALLY wants it, I'd think you'd be ok in the $2300 range, possibly $2500. The incorrect bracelet isn't a deal breaker and hopefully, a full service will replace the pins & collars. I would consider NOT replacing the hands as the face is developing a nice patina, I'd also pass on polishing as there doesn't appear to have any major cosmetic flaws and the lugs look nice & clean. If you can snag it for under 2k, that would be great.
Thanks for the information, always helpful. I couldn't remember what kind of bracelet the Speedmaster I had in the 70's had, but I had to have whatever pins it had replaced twice, I wore it hard and it was constantly breaking.