Speedy at the Cape

[CalSRQ1]

Family day at Cape Canaveral - thought I’d take the speedy along

[Stevec14]

[GolfGuy]

Nice!!!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[sensui]

The right choice.

[BNA/LION]

Nice!

[mps354]

It’s back home

[strafer_kid]

No better place!

[AEC]

Nice watch. Reference 145.012? More photos of this one, if you have some, please!

[won01419]

Nice!

[Justindo]

Great picture! The perfect watch for the setting.

[CalSRQ1]

Originally Posted by AEC

Nice watch. Reference 145.012? More photos of this one, if you have some, please!

Of course! So this watch comes with a story. I’m a space geek, drank tang 🤢every morning growing up etc. I bought my first “nice” watch local (a used 5513) but always wanted a speedy and after putting it off a long time I decided I wanted a 105.012, preferably made same year as I was (66). So found it on the bay (this was about 10 years ago). Also long before I paid attention to “buy the seller”. Unfortunately the watch arrived and had issues. I took it to Omega - and US repair center said given its vintage had to send it back to the main repair shop in Europe. Had water damage. Well took them 6 months but it came back in good order. Dial has some fading/browning but I really love the watch. My son works at the cape, and I get such a kick out of wearing it...especially there. The whole area (around the cape/satellite beach etc) reminds me of what Florida was like in the 70s when I moved here. Even the space center has a retro feel although they are slowly upgrading the facilities as we’re entering this new era of space exploration. So here’s a few pics:

[Urosfan]

Nice

[CalSRQ1]

Also just received a Kizzi strap for the speedmaster... pretty cool packaging too

[KBM]

Very fitting.

[AEC]

Originally Posted by CalSRQ1

Of course! So this watch comes with a story. I’m a space geek, drank tang ��every morning growing up etc. I bought my first “nice” watch local (a used 5513) but always wanted a speedy and after putting it off a long time I decided I wanted a 105.012, preferably made same year as I was (66). So found it on the bay (this was about 10 years ago). Also long before I paid attention to “buy the seller”. Unfortunately the watch arrived and had issues. I took it to Omega - and US repair center said given its vintage had to send it back to the main repair shop in Europe. Had water damage. Well took them 6 months but it came back in good order. Dial has some fading/browning but I really love the watch. My son works at the cape, and I get such a kick out of wearing it...especially there. The whole area (around the cape/satellite beach etc) reminds me of what Florida was like in the 70s when I moved here. Even the space center has a retro feel although they are slowly upgrading the facilities as we’re entering this new era of space exploration. So here’s a few pics:

Nice watch. I have a soft spot for the c.321 Speedmaster Pro. The column-wheel architecture is elegant, and the slower beat-rate is old-school-cool, I think.

I'll have to see if I can dig up photos, but ten years ago I was in one of my favorite local watch shops to look at straps, and one of the owners was wearing a very tired-looking Speedmaster Pro. I inquired, and he explained that a customer who bought the watch from them when it was new had dropped it off and asked them to resell it. They were about to send it off to Omega for restoration, but I was welcome to have it as-is for only a few hundred bucks before it went in the mail. I said I would consider it.

Then, after I left, they sent me a photo of the inside of the case-back, and that's how I found out it was a 145.012! The dial had been replaced at service early in its life with a painted-logo dial that led me to believe it was an early c.861 watch.

By the time I said I would take it, the watch had already been shipped to Secaucus, and subsequently forwarded to Bienne for evaluation. Bienne gave an estimate of ~$1,200 for a full restoration, but I had trouble getting answers to questions about which replacement dial and hands they intended to install. My dealer said that if I still wanted it in unrestored condition he would decline the service and ask Bienne to ship it back to him, and that's what we did. I bought the watch for $600, ordered the dial and hands I knew were correct for it (a parts supplier in Australia was going out of business and liquidating its inventory, and they happened to have the correct bits). I shipped everything off to RGM in Lancaster, and they did the overhaul.

I enjoyed the heck out of wearing it for a couple of years, and then traded it toward something else (which I ended up not enjoying!).

Thanks for reading. I'm glad to see this one doing its thing at The Cape, and I enjoyed recounting the story of mine.

[77T]

Apropos- hope you enjoy the visit.
It still gives me goose flesh to experience the scale of the rockets.

One of our Country’s finest decade benefited from the program that popularized Tang and Velcro


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk