The red-handed Speedy Pro stepchild

An answer to a red-handed Speedy riddle that I've been pondering for a bit. Since I had to say goodbye to a few relatives who were in town for a family gathering the other day, I planned my time at the airport to coincide around meeting up with the US director of Antiquorum who was also taking off from SFO at the same time, the notable Charles Tearle. Unlike us WIS hobbyists (most of us here anyway) he's a watch professional, meaning he does this for a living beyond flipping watches to fund the next new toy. If you think he sounds familiar, you may remember that he was interviewed in the recent 2010 WatchTime article and was the resident watch guru on the Antiques Roadshow on PBS.



So it happened he was in San Francisco for some consignment work and I was lucky to pull him aside for a few minutes to ascertain his impressions on this undocumented cal. 321 Speedy some of us have been conversing about these last few months, a watch that's been the topic of some debate in regards to the veracity of the red chrono seconds usually seen on the Speedy Mark II which was introduced about a year or so after - (my cal. 321 dates to mid-late 1967) - whether it was 'real' and 'legitimate' or was a 'put-together' from the Omega repair depot as some have suggested. I admit to being stuck on how to engage on this topic when the thread came out discussing this on WUS a few months ago:

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/help-1970s-speedmaster-professional-417746-post3123039.html

And ever since then, having tried my hand at writing Omega corporate without luck and not knowing what to try next, I used this opportunity for a bit of improvised fact-finding. A member from another forum had brought into light a similar red-handed cal. 321 Speedy Pro that was gifted to him by a wealthy relative and was purchased by him in SE Asia back in the late 60's-early 70's, his pic is here, courtesy H2F:








Read up here:

http://watchtalkworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=watcho1&action=display&thread=18992

Knowing that we both sought some guidance to clear up this intriguing mystery - if nothing else sharing with him our bemusement with the oddities of this unique piece - I made a point to bring this forward to see what Charles had to say on this matter. A quick bit of history with this - there have been other 'racing' variants of the Speedy Pro before the introduction of the Mark II and the re-editioned JDM 3570.40 aka my Tangerine Dream - but in addition there is still another rare Speedy not often mentioned, of which I had only seen one on sale in the last three years and it was going for ¥900000 (almost $11k) in Tokyo - pic courtesy Robert-Jan from Fratellowatches.com:



Read up here:
Speedmaster Racing 3570.40


Some further pics in support of the thread I found around the web. Here's the chronostop with its red hand, the 145.007:


An example from jrwood:


This one here from agt vintage watches:


And finally an inaccurate replacement red hand on what appears to be an otherwise legit 145.012:


After he examined the watch, basing his opinion from dealing with these more obscure timepieces from the upper tiers of our hobby - he confirmed that this red-handed variant is authentic to the 145.012 - with Charles saying his having seen more than 6 or 7 of these in his travels exactly like it. The fact it may not have made it into the Kesaharu Imai's Time Capsule nor Chicagoland Chuck's chronomaddox site nor that it was not mentioned prior to our discussions here on WUS doesn't reduce or dilute the opposing argument it is not legit IMO. But try as I did to contact Omega's Marco Richon without success - having called up a favor to use an inside contact through Omega's PR dept to contact the gentleman - this for me at least this puts my mind at greater ease, and fulfills my promise to a fellow WIS to find some closure in regards to his family heirloom. Either way it would have been ok because I love this Speedy dearly and would not have ultimately mattered except for the sake of clarity and documentation, and by extension making its ownership a more pleasurable and less melancholy experience.



^ Taken from my car at SFO (I'm sure that dude in the background's prolly thinking we're doing a narc deal or something no good!)

Some better shots I took of this particular 145.012:





This is certainly not the definitive word on the topic but my hope is that it will add some progress to this discussion. Always looking to learn more about these cal. 321 chronos and welcome any comments. Merry Christmas everyone!

great post and one very special watch!

Wow !!! What an outstanding job finding all of this out Waruilewi !
I honestly don't know much about Omega watches other than knowing
that they have an epic history, make GREAT watches, and have ALOT
of unbelivably NICE models to choose from, and learn about ! ..That's
why this info about this red-handed watch is so enjoyable to read about,
as well as learn about. ..You did an excellent job of describing the
entire story about this watch, along with showing the other red-handed
models. It's TERRIFIC that you were able to find some answers about
this from an expert like this also. Amazing detective work sir, and really
great information, and links about all of it TOO ! ..Thank you very very
much !!!!

Merry Christmas to you as well Waruilewi !