I had once owned a cal.861 ST145.022-69 Speedmaster pre-moon, but traded it off cos it didn't quite speak to me.
So I must have been pretty struck with the dreaded Watch Acquisition Syndrome when I started looking for a slightly earlier variant, the last Speedmaster variant to carry the column-wheel cal.321, the ST145.012.
ST145.012s from 1967 are fairly common, but I wanted the considerably less common variant, the ST145.012-68...these were literally the last c.321 Speedmasters, produced in late 1968 or so, before they transited to the cheaper to manufacture c.861 ST 145.022.
So I found this one on Fleabay - it's condition looked so-so - dial looked original but with the lume 'washed' off, hands likely service replacements, wrong DN90 bezel - under normal circumstances I would have walked away (and the experts at Omega Forum all seemed to agree), but it had one redeeming feature that I found irresistible - it came with Omega Archive papers stating the production date to be 11 Nov 1968. This meant that this watch was produced 'in the factory' at about the same time (give or take a few days) as yours truly!
When the watch arrived, it did appeal to me more than my previous cal.861 Speedy, but I wasn't satisfied with the 'washed' lume on the dial, so I promptly shipped it back to the UK to the master James Hyman to have the dial relumed - now I hear all the purists letting out a collective scream: "DO NOT RELUME YOUR VINTAGE WATCH!!!!"
I do know perfectly well that it will adversely affect it's resale value, but since I had no intention of selling it on, I felt no compelling reason why I shouldn't do whatever I wanted with it! =P
When I got it back from James it was much much better - but it was still not perfect - everytime I looked at it, the incorrect DN90 bezel bothered me immensely.
Trying to find a correct 'Dot Over 90' bezel is not impossible, but they were all super expensively overpriced.
Then I found one that was faded - extremely faded - in fact, faded enough to be termed a 'ghost' bezel.
There tends to be 2 distinct camps when it comes to ghost bezels, you either love it or hate it.
I, for one, love the 'I've had an honest, hard life' ghost bezel look - for sure a nicely faded ghost bezel is way more attractive to my eyes, than say, the flaked bezel of my previous c.861 Speedmaster 145.022-69 - so I took a gamble, emptied the wallet, bit the bullet, and bought the ghost bezel!
And while I was at it, I bought a correct, earlier 'pointy base' chrono hand to replace the later 'flat base' chrono hand of mine.
So when I finally put it all together....I was greatly relieved - my Speedy now looked pretty darn perfect!
It's by no means all original, but who cares!
It's mine, it ain't going anywhere, and it looks absolutely lovely (albeit in a Franken kinda way)!!!
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