What do you think about this 3870.50?

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!

Would not have come with that bracelet when new, either. But that's a matter of personal taste.

Tom

I was thinking it was sold with a leather strap and the owner wanted a bracelet.

Tom

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.

The 1171 only has standard split pins, and no tubes. Not sure whether those would be replaced.

Tom

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.