zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

I have considered how the ever diplomatic Swiss could still be telling the "truth", in a very narrow "legal" sense, with a remark that only 2,000 were produced.

(No offense to Jeff or any other attorneys, but the legal profession is the often the source of carefully phrased remarks that hold up under scrutiny -- and means something else than the impression you get on a first reading!)

-- Were only 2,000 cases produced?
-- Were only 2,000 "125" faces produced?
-- Were only 2,000 calibre 1041s produced?
-- Were only 2,000 complete watches sold?

Here's a theory, which may explain some of the excess Speedmaster 125s.

I understand some supposed 125s appear in non-original modular outer cases. This adds a few to the numbers available.

Omega surely produced spare parts of inner and outer cases. Prehaps a few more are added this way -- and maybe this is the source of higher production numbers engraved on some casebacks.

Omega produced spare 125 faces -- I just bid on some from Watchco Australia. Add a few more watches to the numbers out there.

Omega logically would have produced spare 1041 calibres, or at least spare parts, including the marked bridge that identifies a 1041 to most of us. Otherwise, the 1041 is a 1040 with (quoting Chuck from a recent post on another forum) between 2 and 5 different parts. This could add a few more watches to the numbers out there.

And lastly -- did they simply make more watches than they said? Maybe?

To tell you the truth, 2,000 is such a precise number, I don't know how the Swiss could come up with a way to wiggle out of that one.

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This reminds me a bit of Omega's "Centenary". They produced 4,000 of the watch with a marked outer case and Omega's first automatic chronometer in 1948. It was an expensive watch, still being sold years later.

And they also produced a nearly identical watch in a case 2mm smaller, in 2,000 pieces and called it a Centenary in 1949.

And they produced Chronometre watches that were identical, but for the outer case markings, until 1952.

Thus there are lots of Centenarys and Centenary look alikes that try to get passed off out there. It is a desireable watch, and fairly easy to fake or misrepresent something else as a Centenary.

The 125 can be faked, and we have all seen examples. There are economic incentives to faking it.

Finally, I sit on the fence. There are more than 2,000 out there -- But I am unsure that they all left the Omega factory as complete watches.

And yes, I own a Speedmaster 125, without a caseback engraving.