Cheap UK Replica Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial Watches

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For those of you familiar with Theo & Harris, it is no secret that we are in absolute infatuation over there with vintage Omega Replica UK, specifically, the Omega Seamaster. It is a series of watches that has changed dramatically over time — from its initial release in 1948 as a collection of small dress watches, to its transition to a dive Swiss replica watches in 1957, to its massive diversification in the 1970s as a result of the Quartz Crisis, to its contemporary version being James Bond’s current watch of choice. It is a piece that has truly experienced the ups and downs of a consumer market, and that is what makes last year’s release of the Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial, and the design choices Omega made with it, even more special.


As I mentioned above, Omega began producing Seamasters as dive watches in the watershed year of 1957 — the same year that both the first Speedmaster and the now-discontinued Railmaster were released. They were produced as luxury pieces to compete (and continue to compete) with the Rolex Submariner, with the goal of becoming the go-to dive Replica Watches UK — even over the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Zodiac Seawolf — for serious divers and boardroom executives alike. From its original release onward, the Seamaster dive watches have experienced massive changes in design, popularity, and marketing, yet it is that classic reference from 1957 upon which today’s Omega Seamaster 300 is based.
 Omega_Seamaster_300_Replica Watches
Today’s copy watches (Ref. 233.30.41.21.01.001, pictured above and below) is a 41-mm beast. With case options in steel, platinum, yellow and Sedna gold, or titanium, with either a matching metal or leather bracelet, there is a combination for pretty much anyone’s taste and budget.
Specifically focusing on the steel-on-steel variation, the piece features a sand-blasted black dial with faux patina, Super-LumiNova hour markers, Arabic quarter hour numerals, and a white Omega corporate logo at 12 o’clock. The hands are the vintage-inspired broad arrow hour, and a matching vintage-Omega-styled minute hand; the bezel is a polished ceramic with a Liquidmetal diving scale — an upgrade from the brittle 1950s-era bezel previously used. Inside the case, and visible through a clear sapphire caseback, resides the Omega Caliber 8400, an automatic movement that uses the brand’s Co-Axial escapement, is resistant to magnetic fields greater than 15,000 gauss, and has a power reserve of 60 hours. Some other key features to notice are the large crown minus crown guards, vintage-style domed crystal, and proven water resistance of 30 bar, or 300 meters (it was only proven to 200 meters in 1957). This piece is listed on the Omega website at $6,600, but it is possible to find it for less at a dealer.
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For the most part, today’s Seamaster 300 Master Co-Axial is a faithful re-creation of the original 1957 watch. From the colors, the dial and hand designs, and case, the watch as a whole is a clear homage to the past and the Seamaster’s diving lineage. Some aethsetic differences to note, as both modern improvements and for contemporary appeal, include the wider bezel and case (41 mm instead of 39 mm), polished center links on the metal bracelet, a somewhat stubbier screw-down crown, arrow-esque seconds hand, and — most notably — a clear caseback. While I personally would have preferred the thinner bezel and the original seconds hand, at the heart of this watch is its use as a tool, and both these modern features improve its function for legibility while diving. Overall, I find this a very handsome piece, and a great job by Omega of riding today’s trend of nostalgia-loving watch aficionados.
 
Finally, I want to touch upon the assured rise in prominence of this watch as a result of its association with James Bond. While there are a few differences between the reference we previously covered and the limited edition “Spectre” variation (Ref. 233.32.41.21.01.001, pictured above), namely the 0-11 marked, bi-directional rotating bezel and the lollipop seconds hand, the Seamaster 300 is experiencing a new era of “watch love” due to its place on the wrist of the cinematic superspy played by Daniel Craig. What all this means is that the watch now has tested relevance: consumers see the similar timepiece on Bond’s wrist, are drawn into its intricacies, and eventually, when they are unable to pick up the more expensive or potentially unavailable spy-watch, will settle for the equally cool, vintage-inspired, flagship Seamaster 300. Kudos to Omega on both a watch and marketing campaign very well done.
 James_Bond_wearing_Omega_560 Replica Watches
 

For part 18 in this series, in which I take a look at the IWC Big Pilot, click here.

Caleb Anderson is the Director of Outreach at the online vintage watch boutique theoandharris.com. Since starting at Theo & Harris, he has garnered extensive knowledge on vintage copy watches, and spends much of his time sharing his opinions within the field. Currently located near New York City, he is a persistent student in all things historical, a writer on watches, and a casual runner.

Cheap Replica Watches Omega Speedmaster 50 Auction Report

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Yesterday evening, Christie’s held their Speedmaster 50 Auction in New York. Although no-one of our team could be there on location, we did get some help from Sacha Davidoff for this report. He is one of the founders and owners of the Roy & Sacha Davidoff boutique, the place for vintage cheap replica watches in Geneva. He was in New York to witness the auction and spoke to one of the guys who submitted a substantial amount of fake watches for the auction, Riccardo Bernard.

Omega Speedmaster Pro 145.022, fetching $245,000.- USD

Sacha Davidoff: “Riccardo Bernard is the major contributor, in terms of the Christie’s Speedmaster 50 auction collection. He is a collector with an affinity for space and aeronautics who worked for major air companies. His first replica watches UK was a Rolex GMT-Master (with the PanAm connection) made sense with regards to his professional background, but then he became addicted to vintage Speedmaster watches in the 1990’s. He plans to one day go into space and is currently also an avid vintage car collector, especially Porsche. On top of that, he is the importer of Porsche in Scandinavia. The big question, why would he want to sell this amazing collection? First, he wanted to mark his achievement and he is glad that the Speedmaster catalog is beautiful. He had a hard copy printed in very limited quantity. On a more secretive note, the proceeds of the sale are going to go towards his dream of flying into space!” 

Omega ReplicaSpeedmaster

The Results

With an estimate of somewhere between $500,000.- USD and $1,000,000.- USD, the total result of $1,304,125.- USD is certainly not bad. Let us go through some high-lights of the Christie’s Speedmaster 50 Auction of last evening. I’ve received a couple of notes of Sacha Davidoff that he took before the auction, and of course I do see the results on the official Christie’s website. So let’s go and see what happened.

Flown Speedmaster Pro 145.022

The top seller of Christie’s Speedmaster 50 Auction was the flown Apollo 17 Speedmaster Professional with caliber 861, lot 15.

Lot 15 fetched a staggering $245,000.- USD. This Swiss replica watches was owned by Apollo 17 astronaut Ron Evans and comes with a couple of other space memorabilia. It wasn’t used on the Moon, or even worn on the wrist during the Apollo 17, it was used to perform tests on board and was attached to a dash board. The watch has been engraved by Ron Evans himself to mark its adventure on board of the CSM.

ChristiesSpeedmaster Replica Watches

CK2915 References

Lot 3, the Speedmaster CK2915-1 from 1957 realized $137,000 USD. According to Sacha Davidoff “This is the most sought after and valuable regular production Speedmaster as it is the first generation of the first reference. Submitted by Somlo, owner of the Omega vintage shop in London, with some speculation to the origin of the case (finishings) and the dial as well, the estimate is a bit high and will be interesting to see if it is reached.”. The estimate was between $100,000.- USD and $150,000.- USD, so the result is quite nice I think.

Sacha’s words on the case are something that I’ve echoed in this article as well. As I wrote in that earlier article “….it seems to be some kind of early case made by Huguenin Frères that could also be seen in early Speedmaster advertisements. Whether this specific replica Omega watches was used as a subject to that campaign is not clear, but that could be the case (no pun intended) of course.”. It is interesting to see that both CK2915 references fetched well over $100,000.- USD. Lot 4 was the CK2915-2 and estimated between $50,000.- USD and $80,000.- USD. The result of $118,750.- USD is therefore impressive.

CK2998 References

Another Speedmaster that did extremely well in my opinion, is lot 5. As Sacha describes it “Beautiful tropical CK 2998-1, base 1000 bezel, and with the numbers that these have been trading in close circles of collectors (behind the scenes) should easily reach the high estimate. Sadly the bracelet is not correct as date 65, but still nice and a detail for such a grail fake watches for sale.”. As I wrote in my earlier article on the Christie’s Speedmaster 50 Auction: “For me personally, the CK2998 is something like the grail Speedmaster. I prefer it over a CK2915, without wanting to doubt the historical significance of that one. I just prefer the black bezel over the steel bezel and love those Alpha hands. For me, the CK2998 comes close to the Moonwatch as we know it today.”. The estimate of this beautiful CK2998-1 was between $20,000.- and $40,000.- USD and the result was $50,000.- USD. Lot 7 (CK2998-62) and Lot 6 (CK2998-4) fetched resp. $28,750.- USD and $20,000.- USD which are still very respectable amounts for the Speedmaster reference CK2998. This reference is clearly highly sought-after and the prices went up quite a bit during the last 2-3 years. Hello vintage Daytona prices.

Cheap Replica Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67

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In the last few weeks and months, we’ve received quite a bit of e-mail about the cheap copy Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67 reference. This particular reference was produced in 1967 and 1968 and is the last Speedmaster with caliber 321 movement. Also, it was the Speedmaster with this column wheel movement that had the highest production, somewhere between 27000 and 28000 pieces. The 145.012, together with the 105.012, was also the Speedmaster that Omega Replica Watches sent to NASA for use during Extravehicular Activities (EVA) by astronauts during the Apollo missions. We know now that the 105.012 reference was actually used by Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969. However, Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins was wearing the Speedmaster Professional 145.012.

The Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67 is quite ‘steady’ in its configurations. So you could say that the characteristics to look for are quite straight-forward. Nevertheless, we receive quite a bit of messages from readers who want to buy a Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67 and have some questions about it, or people who actually have or found one, and have some doubts about its originality. This article is meant to give some insights in the Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67 and what to look for. I will also give some examples of do’s and don’ts and right and wrongs.

omega seamaster Replica Watches

Popularity of the Omega Speedmaster Replica Watches Professional 145.012-67

The 145.012-67 is one of those references with caliber 321 movement that is still relatively affordable. It is the caliber 321 Speedmaster with the highest production, which means that it should also be the easiest Speedmaster with that column-wheel movement to find. However, I also noticed that prices are increasing rapidly. This reference was actually the first Omega Speedmaster that I bought myself, in 1999. It was still in the pre-Euro era (although in 1999 the conversion rate was already communicated, the coin itself wasn’t there until 2002), and I paid 2000 Dutch Guilders for my Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67, which is now about 900 Euro in those days. Later on, I bought a couple more of those 145.012 references and I think the last one was in 2003 or 2004, for a whopping 1300 Euro. I can’t remember whether it had the correct bezel, but in those days, nobody really cared about this. In recent years however, the price of the 145.012-67 was between 2500 and 3500 Euro, depending whether everything was original (hands and bezel are the main concerns these days) and whether it came on the original reference 1039 bracelet. That was until 2015. It is with quite a bit of amazement that I’ve monitored and watched the market for these Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67 models this year.

As the pre-decessors of the 145.012 (105.012, 105.003, 105.002, CK2998, CK2915) went up in price quite a bit, it seems the 145.012-67 profits from this as well. A profit for those who already have one of course. The 145.022 models on their turn, seem to step into the price bracket that was formerly the one of the 145.012. I am currently looking for a 145.022-76 for a friend of mine, and it seems to be impossible to get a decently priced one that she can wear on a daily basis. Truth to be told, and you might laugh, I prefer the looks of the 145.022 over the 145.012 to be honest. However, the Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67 has the column-wheel caliber 321 movement that a lot of Speedmaster enthusiasts are so keen on owning. Below, a nice 145.012 that is being offered for sale (here).

replica omega watches

Don’ts and Perhaps Wrongs

Before I head over to the do’s and rights, let me get back to the e-mails I was referring to earlier in this article. We receive a lot of fake watches for sale – and especially Speedmaster – related e-mails on a daily basis, mainly questions about a a watch that someone owns that we discussed or the typical “I have 3000 Euro/USD to spend, what should I buy?”. With regards to the Speedmaster related e-mails, there are some interesting ones between them that concern the Speedmaster Professional 145.012-67. Or should I say Speedmaster 145.012-67? I have received three different e-mails (from three different persons) who have this Speedmaster 145.012-67 that doesn’t say ‘Professional’ on the dial. I have seen one of them in the flesh as well. ‘Professional’ was added since the 105.012 reference, in 1964 and onwards. The story goes that Omega added ‘Professional’ after the Speedmaster was chosen by NASA to be their official chronograph timepiece for astronauts in 1965, but that is not the case. It was already added to the dial before that.

I would say that a Speedmaster 145.012-67 without ‘Professional’ has a faulty or better said, incorrect dial. However(!), I also have to add that it isn’t always that black & white as described in articles or books. There is a huge grey area as a result of what was quite common in those years: use what you have. This also explains the “transitional” models from certain brands. Either huge stock on parts or a change of supplier caused that some references have models that should look equal, but don’t. For the Omega Speedmaster Professional 145.012, this was mainly in the use of hands. At some point, Omega started using the flats (or straight end) chronograph seconds hand instead of the drop shaped chronograph seconds hand. So you might find 145.012 models with the newer type of hand, that was later used in the 145.022 as well. I can’t imagine though, that it would be ‘OK’ for Omega to finish-up a pile of non-Professional dials in a watch that is basically the 2nd generation of ‘Speedmaster Professional’ watches. A watch maker might have been sloppy, but it is easier to assume that the dial has been swapped during a later period when the original dial was damaged for example, and a watch maker just added a non-Professional dial he had in stock.

omega copy watches

Two very interesting e-mails came in the last few months as well (the most recent one is from last week), where people have a 145.012 with a straight-lug case (and no crown-guards, obviously). One of them has a ‘Professional’ dial and the other has not. As one of the guys who mailed me pointed out as well, it wasn’t until 1969 when Omega finally delivered all 105.003 Swiss replica watches to the market (straight lugs, pre-Professional). So a mix-up is possible of course, but very unlikely. The only way to get certainty about this is to contact Omega in Bienne to see if they have any facts on these combinations.