There is a Speedmaster Professional Gemini IV limited edition watch for sale on the web.
Normally, this wouldn't interest me much but the seller is less than an hour away from where I live.

He is asking $8000 for it and says that it is a firm price.

How does one get this kind of damage on the watch box?

Any thoughts on this watch?

 

Price is good, one with a damaged box was listed here at 9250 a few mths back and sold (not sure if it asking or negotiated lower)
I think the other looked a little cleaner.
If you like the watch and have wanted it Id buy it.
You may be able to buy it and trade into something else you want.
You may even be able to clean it up at make a few hundred bucks.

 

I think the box damage is simply caused by time. Lots of boxes from this period, especially the more common red ones, show this damage. I think that’s partly why they switched to the monster/wooden boxes of today (that and they can jack the prices up accordingly).

https://omegaforums.net/threads/red-box-warning.47484/#post-565756

 

Serial number: 77143764
Article ref: 35658000

 

Yes - you are fully right. These Gemini IV boxes (and many others) have some sort of padded/ soft outer shell and the result as in the picture above is normal. Should not affect the value too much, important that there is a box .
This speedy was the beginning of my collection and still now I find it one of the most beautiful.

 

I wish I live in the same country as you rather than half a world away, for sure you can have all my watches when they are needing servicing

 

All these old boxes were made of some sort of vinyl material, and they all deteriorate over time. 8k US is a pretty decent price for these especially if you could persuade a lower price on pickup.

 

Don’t remember seeing a GIV in that condition for 8K in the recent past. Box condition wouldn’t concern me; it’s probably been in multiple moves stored in multiple attics/basements

 

Thank you everyone for the helpful feedback.

I met the seller the other day and went forward with purchasing the watch.
The seller is a great guy and very knowledgeable about watches, in fact, he was wearing an older Rolex GMT Master with the Pepsi bezel.
He is the original owner of the watch, bought it new from a New York City watch store in 2007.
He was kind enough to give me his original receipt with the watch.

For some reason the box looked better in person than it did in his pictures on the web.
The damage to the outside black cover is there, but not as noticeable in person.

Doing a watch deal in person is less stressful than over a long distance.
We met in a public place (a local indoor shopping mall, with many people there shopping), I got to inspect the watch and all the other items, I then sent a PayPal F&F transaction to him (using my cell phone), we waited a few minutes until the PP transaction showed up on his end (on his cell phone).

I swapped the blue cloth band with the bracelet once I got home.

It really is an amazing looking watch. I think Omega made 2005 of them.

 

Congrats and enjoy this awesome watch! Gemini IV is one of my favorite from space missions limited editions. Blue dial looks great and almost always a bit differently, depends on the lighting.

The issue with the box and card pouch (the vinyl peels off) is pretty standards to many non-standard (aka limited edition) watches. Unfortunately.

Wear the watch with pride!

 

Another fun aspect of buying a watch is when and what to tell the wife.
I was thinking, do I try to hide it from her and then one day say something like "Oh yeah, I've had this watch a long time now".
Or, "go ugly early" and bring it up before I commit to buying it.

In this case, I brought it up to her before meeting the seller.
Because the watch has a blue dial with white sub-dials, I figured she'll spot it right away if I were to wear it.
As you can expect, her reaction included comments like "Why do you need ANOTHER watch?".

After a while though, she is a good sport and said "Whatever makes you happy".

Of course, now I live in dread of what she's going to want for her next "splurge expenditure".

We've been married 40 years this upcoming year so we know each other well.
I like to micro-manage the budget and complain to her about small ticket items but then, on impulse, go buy another $300K+ plus car.
I never said I was good at budgeting.

.

 

I think you did well.

My favorite LE too.

 

It is a very distinctive limited edition Speedy Pro, isn't it?

.

 

My box looks the same.

I bought mine about 5-6 years ago. It's my all time favorite watch.

Check this thread out.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/gemini-iv-speedmaster-roll-call.41285/

 

What cars have you purchased for $300k+??

 

Oops, one zero too many in my prior post. Apologies. $30k is more like it.
.

 

Aww man, and here I thought we were going to get pictures of McLarens and Ferraris.

 

I was about to ask for pics too expecting something like this!

 

Ha, I was going to ask what part of VA you lived in if you were regularly bringing home $300k+ cars. That's $15k/ yr in personal property tax on each one.

 

One of my fav Speedys, congrats!