Hi all! First time post after lots of reading (obviously not enough). I've just bought this Speedmaster 105.003. Price paid £4000. http://www.horlogerie-exquise-paris.com/montres/omega-speedmaster-1964/ It's very pretty IMO, but lots of parts have been replaced. Obviously, the bezel is wrong for the watch. Also the hands are new (all of them I think?). And the crown. Even the chrono pushers are gleaming. The case has been over polished etc. I'm reaching out to you guys for thoughts and opinions. Good points, bad points. Can you spot other things? I'm happy for you to be as brutally honest as you wish. Right now I'm thinking is it worth sourcing correct old parts and then booking in with a reputable watchmaker (the watch guy?) to have this restored to looking how it should? Or should I just accept it for what it is? Thank you, DT.
Well I think you paid too much, but the dial looks nice and that is one of the harder parts to find in nice condition. I think it would be worth finding the original parts over time.
A good watchmaker can actually sort the hands out reasonably easily, knock the luminova out of them, dull the white a bit and refill them with a tritium like material to match the dial. Pushers and crown aren't dealbreakers but @michael e sells a modified Railmaster 2914 crown to fit 321 Speedmasters that would be an ideal swap and is reasonably priced. As far as the Don bezel goes, if you're wearing it daily I wouldn't worry all that much, or if you want to stop people noticing it, take a pen knife and scrape off some of the bezel paint near 90 where the dot would be, then you get a Schrödinger's bezel, in that its DON, not DON, both and neither.
don`t be too critical; wear it as much as you can on a nice dark brown leather strap. then find a bezel. don`t go that stupid dot over 90 path with bubble inflated prices in the moment. find a nice telemeter/pulsometer/60 units bezel. they were correct as well. will cost you around $ 250. sell your bezel on ebay for $ 200 plus. and then after a few weeks, decide what to do. keep it and get a feel for it. keep your eyes open for old hands ( we might have a few used 003 hands somewhere; but you will find them in Europe easily. most older watchmakers kept their exchanged hands. and then again: love it and wear it ! kind regards. achim
Wow! Thanks dsio, what a great forum. Also, thanks very much in advance for further thoughts guys. DT.
The patina of the hands is not that far off from the dial. Even if the hands are new it seems like they were replaced a long time ago. The watch still looks good IMO. I have a speedmaster with the same hands issue but it doesn't really bother me.
My brutal assesment is that this is the typical watch a dealer will produce. Over polished and incorrectly appointed. Now it is not all bad news. £4000 for a 105.003 is not extortionate in these markets. Sure, if you hunt and scrounge you might find one for £3000 but it's going to have a bucket of problems. This ones problems are easy to make, if not good, then pretty good. All the bezel discussion is a bit of a distraction. It's just money, now that market prices have risen to £600-1400 And drawn them out of people's parts drawers! What I mean is, it's up to you where you go, all options are available. Six months ago you couldn't find them. The case is incorrectly polished, as well as over polished. A good workshop will re finish the sides to correct spec and genreraly make the best of what you have got. It will be a far better result than what you have now. The pushers are so completely wrong they ruin the look of the watch for me. Again, service items easily replaced. Crown can be sorted by Micheal e as suggested. The hands are modern service replacements. Again a good workshop will age them. They won't fool some, but they will make the watch much easier to live with and much more attractive. In these times, finding a 105.003 is very difficult. Attractive ones sell for a lot of money, and this brings onto the market poor examples chasing those high prices. This watch could have been a lot worse at this money. It looks an original case/movement/dial combination, and I can't tell you how rare that is becoming. Clearly it has been worked on by some one without specialised speedmaster knowledge and so I would send it straight to STS for a service and light case refinish, and hand colour adjustment. Don't beat yourself up. This can be a decent watch for not much further outlay.
ha ha! Well, thank you very much Spacefruit for all your words of wisdom. Now I have a route to go down. DT
Correct me if I´m wrong, but those pushers looks like they belong on a 105.012-66. If that´s the case, you should be able to exchange them against the correct ones, without loosing money.
Who would be the equivalent of STS in the United States that would do a good job on a project like this including the outer case work?
While I am completely open to the idea that there is, in my experience there is not. Not many have access to parts. I have not tried everyone in the USA, and would be happy to find someone if anyone has a suggestion. Archer in Canada is the nearest, but he has a long turnaround time....presumably because he is so good. There are minor customs and shipping issues but easily surmountable.
If you're going to wear it instead of collect it... I would personally replace the dial, refinish the case as new, and leave the rest of it alone (or new Luminova hands to match the new dial). That's my non-collector perspective. Tom
ABC in LA is the best for finishing but they charge a ton to break it down and then re do it close to what it should be from factory. They restore beveled Rolex cases with ease and have all the expensive machines to get the finishes done right. Haven't found any one to replicate the finishes like they do out of factory and even then I have seen some really crappy polishing and restoration work by Omega employees.