Will this Ed White Sell?

On offer from a good seller, this 105.003 has an interesting dial.



The price is $10,000 from HQ Milton. Link here

a nice Ed White will still require over $20,000 for a good one. So at this asking price, we should see if there is anything to learn.

I know many (most?) will dismiss this as a damaged overposlished poor condition watch, but I think it has something, even if not as much as the asking.

The heart of the watch is the dial, then the bezel.

This dial is faded, tropicalised. However it is also damaged, and I would say quite severely. The print is badly missing at 4 to 5 markers. The dial surface has an interesting fade, but not the kind of fade that I would place a premium on it. The markers themselves are also degraded. The T SWISS MADE T is mostly missing. It is not a fine, nor valuable dial. I do find it interesting.

The bezel looks awful. I have a feeling that the lighting is not doing it any favours and it may be better in the metal - it is still not a bezel I find attractive.



Crown and pushers look original and that is positive.

I would say the case is quite polished - but all straight lug speedmasters seem to have some sort of polishing.





call me a philistine but polished cases on straight lug speedmaster don’t put me off if other attributes draw me in.

The movement has an average amount of watchmaker evidence, without anything bad in terms of condition. The dust cover is a modern service replacement.



The reason this watch deserves discussion is that two to three years ago, an Ed White for under $10,000 was saleable on price alone, if it was complete and original parts.

Now, we are in different times. We cannot confirm this movement through the archives, and this is a big stumbling block. Previously we could have allocated a big chunk of value to a confirmed Ed White movement - this cannot be confirmed at this time, although the number looks to fall into accepted range.

I think the dial is too far gone to allocate value, but I do find it interesting. But not valuable.

The bezel may well be better than it looks.

case is acceptable , and they look original pushers which is not as common today as you might think.


The question I ask, is this watch saleable at this level? HQM is a trustworthy dealer whose expertise is in Rolex, and I have in the past managed to buy nice speedmasters from them, and at other times looked at their speedmasters wondering why they bought them. What I like is that they often have quirky watches like this.


Another way to think about this. If we take off dealer premium, then I think of this watch at $8,000. Do I think it’s worth it? Not sure.

$6,000 ? Yes, that’s my no brainier buy button…

$7,000 ? not sure

$8,000 not today.

Can I find another Ed White for $10,000? Not easily.

I can like watches very much that have heavy patina and are not perfect....as long as they have that certain je ne sais quoi, let's call it vintage 'character' or wabi-sabi or whatever. But this one for me is totally missing any kind of magic and so would be a pass at any price unless it was cheap enough whereby I could start a project with it. So then we're talking around 4K to make all the time, effort and expense in finding a great dial worthwhile, as well as leaving some meat on the bone for me for later on. So then realistically bearing all that in mind this watch I'd unlikely ever buy as I'd never be able to reach a value equilibirum with the seller.

I can definitely think of better ways to spend $10k, it would annoy me every time I looked at it, and that would lead to me not wearing it, which makes it pretty much useless as a watch, while a very good 145.012 or a perfect straight writing -69 would have me enjoying it every time I looked at it. Some asterisks next to a watch are ok but that’s too big of an asterisk to be enjoyable.

How dare you !!!
(Talking to HQ...)

Too long in the lemon juice or toaster oven.

Can see the watch (and serial #) with a different dial for $16-18k by Easter
With a “One owner barn find” title 😁

Have Phillips write the description, it'll be a $100k watch.

I agree on the "not easily", but without hunting for one I was offered two EWs (from different sources) for around 7k$ in the last few months. Obviously, both had flaws, but weren't a complete shitshow. Came with DONs, too. Watches that, with a Hyman-relume, someone might enjoy. As you said, great examples still hold their value. It's the ones that are far from being great that came down in value significantly and it makes sense to me. Why spend 10k on something that's not even attractive...

Could be wrong but I think that one has been for sale on HQM for several years. That speaks for itself.

Although I’ve never actually taken the plunge, I’ve always fancied a ratty but attractive 321 Speedmaster that could be properly hammered without concern to the impact on value or condition.
Obviously the key element is price and I think the notion of starting with what’s the ‘buy it, no questions’ price and slowly going up from there is a really good approach.

Personally, I would never end up at $10k for this one. Even two years ago.

Exactly. I gotta admit, the offered examples weren’t far off from that point. I like the idea of an… what’s the right word, „affordable“ or „cheap“ feels inadequate, but you know what I mean. Anyway, such a low-cost straight lug beater Speedy. Sounds pretty cool. 😀