Omega Seamaster “Flat Jedi”

A long time ago, in a land far, far away… there was a guy called Chuck Maddox, who was a fanatical watch collector and one of the first to prolifically publish online about the various things he came across. He died unexpectedly in 2008, and a group of friends collected all of his written work and host it on www.chronomaddox.com.

Chuck liked to give names to watches, and some of his nicknames stuck and are now used routinely when discussing watches, especially when trying to sell them. He bought an Omega Seamaster reference 145.0023 nearly 20 years, with a particular black coating on the steel case and musing that it was the kind of watch Darth Vader would wear, he referred to it as such.

image from http://www.chronomaddox.com/darth_vader.html

As a contrast, the non-plated version of the same watch was nicknamed the Anakin Skywalker – as it hadn’t turned to the dark side, yet…

image from https://www.omegawatches.com/watch-omega-seamaster-omega-st-145-0023

Both of these have a fairly distinctive case shape and coloured dial, but another pair of variants had a similar kind of case and a simpler dial, with reference 145.024 – since they followed the Anakin and Darth, Chuck referred to these as “Jedi”, first his own silver-faced watch:

image from ChronoMaddox.com

… and later, a darker-faced watch which is the main subject of this post…

This watch dates from 1970, and shares the same Lemania-based 861 movement of the Speedmaster of the same era. The dial layout is very similar too, except that the TACHYMETER markings are on the dial itself rather than on a bezel, and the sub-dials are “radial” in the way the numbering is printed, rather than all the numbers being “upright” as they are in Speedmasters…

The “Jedi” (also known as “Flat Jedi” or sometimes “Real Jedi”) is quite a strangely shaped watch, with a pretty flat profile and quite thin and exaggerated edges that protrude over where the bracelet or strap attaches. The outer surface has a sunburst finish which is a bit worn and scuffed on this watch: it is possible to have it “re-lapped” but that will inevitably remove some of the metal from the watch itself, and once you’ve taken it away it can never really go back…

it took me a while to find the correct bracelet – a 1116/148 if you must know these things – but I think it looks the part now!

There’s another square-cased watch that incorrectly is known as the Omega Seamaster Jedi, largely because an auctioneer mistook it and the name stuck: Fratello tells the story here.

If you want a Speedmaster with a radial dial layout, you’ll need to track down a Speedy Tuesday, or the watch that inspired it – and only a couple have legitimately been sold in recent years – the Alaska III, as used on the Space Shuttle.

“Ed White” Speedmaster

Edward Higgins White II (Ed to his pals) was an Astronaut in the early days of the American space program. As part of his flight on Gemini IV, the precursor to the Apollo program that put Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon in 1969, he was the first American to do a space walk – or in NASA terms, complete an EVA – Extra-Vehicular Activity.

Public Service Broadcasting do a song about that, though it was something done first by the Russians…

Sadly, Ed White was killed in the Apollo 1 disaster, a tragic fire in the cockpit during testing for the journey to the moon. PSB cover that too, quite sensitively.

Famously, NASA conducted a trial when they were planning the Apollo program, to test a selection of watches for use in space – and the Omega Speedmaster was the only one to pass all the tests, and thus was chosen as standard issue for all astronauts. It’s still the only watch that NASA has certified for EVA use – ie to be worn on the outside of the space suit when doing a space walk.

But during Gemini, NASA issued a selection of watches and they gave Ed White a Speedmaster 105.003 to wear during his EVA and thus it was the first watch worn outside, in space.

As a result of the association, the genre that is 105.003 (produced from 1963-65) is now known as the “Ed White” Speedmaster. It’s characterised from the watch worn by Aldrin on the moon (Armstrong left his in the LEM as a backup so Buzz was the first man on the moon with a watch on his wrist), by a few modifications that Omega made to the 105.003 design, ahead of it – in 105.012 guise – being chosen as standard issue.

The 105.012 and 145.012 watches that Apollo astronauts wore were essentially evolutions of the Ed White – they had …

- a “twisted lug” (or “lyre lug”) case design, vs the “straight lug” of the previous generations
- had crown protectors between the pusher buttons and crown
- had the word “PROFESSIONAL” on the dial, supposedly put there once Omega realised that NASA was using their watches for pretty serious, professional endeavours

But otherwise, they were pretty much the same thing.

This “Ed White” is of the 105.03-64 vintage – though an Extract of the Archives from Omega confirms it was from December 1965, thereby confirming a theory when discussing Dave’s 40th Anniversary watch, that the year stamped on the caseback and the actual date of manufacture might be some time apart.

Generations

The “Moonwatch” has visibly evolved relatively little since; the watch you could buy over the counter today is entirely different, but similar in style. Omega has done a good job of making people feel that if the watch is good enough for NASA, then it’s good enough for them. An enterprising employee of BlueOrigin did send his Speedmaster into space recently, so it still counts.

The Ed White is pictured on the left, next to a 145.012–68 and 145.022–71 watch above; comparing the –64 and –71, the one on the far right has a different movement, case, bracelet, bezel, dial and chrono hand – yet most people would say they look the same.

This particular Ed White has a clean-looking Omega 321 movement, “dot over nintey” bezel that’s in decent but not perfect shape, but the dial is top drawer. In many respects, that’s the most valuable part of any watch – and this one is very good. Almost too good to wear, given its value…

The Ed White has had a few things done to it – the bracelet was refurbished by Michael Young in Hong Kong, to tighten it up, and the watch has been serviced and the lume plot at 10 lightly touched up and stabilised by Omega guru Simon Freese.

Dave’s 40th birthday present

A while ago, Dave contacted me asking for help in finding a suitable watch for his 40th birthday that was then approaching, in 2018. His wife had been saving up a not-insubstantial amount of money and he was looking for some help in finding something that fitted the bill, and which he liked.

So we talked for a while and I showed him real examples of a bunch of watches as well as photos online, and in the end, he decided he’d like a Speedmaster, ideally from 1978. As detailed on Speedmaster101, there was a specific issue of watch that came out in 1978, a 145.022-78.

After a bit of searching, I contacted a friend who is known to be a very prolific collector of Speedmasters, and he happened to have one that he was prepared to sell – “head only”, so no bracelet – having recently been serviced, for a very reasonable sum. So the deal was done.

Next, I set about finding a suitable bracelet – the era of 1978 would have had a reference 1171 bracelet with 633 end-links; there are several versions available (of both bracelet and end-links), including a new 1171/1.

The 1171 bracelet was first fitted to the Speedmaster reference 145.022-69, and the logo on the clasp was trapezoid in shape and the Omega symbol was in bas relief…

(Note also, the “Pre-moon” Speedmaster had an engraved case back with no mention of NASA…)

By 1976 or so, the clasp design changed from a trapezoid to a square, so it was good to find a bracelet in good condition that had the “correct” features – most people would never know, but watch nerds care about stuff like this.

So I managed to get the bracelet, added in a new Omega red service pouch to give Dave’s wife something to present to him, and he’s delighted. The only other point was whether to request an Extract of the Archives from Omega – this would be a £100 cost to get a single sheet of paper in a fancy envelope, saying what date the watch was completed and where it was sent to.

Given that the -78 model was in production from 1978 until maybe 1981, we figured it was safer to not bother with the extract – imagine if the supposed “birth year” watch was actually from 1979…? – and so as far as Dave is concerned, his watch is from 1978, a fact backed up by the fact it’s stamped on the inside of the case.

Everybody’s happy!

Omega Speedmaster – 1968

Fortune favours the brave, at least that’s what fortunate brave people will tell you. A fool and his money are soon parted, too.

And so, this watch revealed itself to me – listed in a bricks & mortar auctioneer too far away to easily go and take a look at it, I put in a bid at a price I felt was a bit of a gamble, but fair. How so?

The auctioneer couldn’t get the back off the watch (even some tooled-up enthusiasts had tried) so could not comment on the state of its movement, or disclose its serial number, or even say what it was.

As any student of MWO or SM101 would know, there are numerous sub-versions of Omega’s iconic “Moon Watch”, the Speedmaster. From 1957 to 1968, they used a manually-wound “column wheel” chronograph movement named as “caliber 321”, and it was a watch featuring this movement that NASA put through a series of gruelling tests before certifying it as suitable for use in space.

The last version of the Speedmaster to use a 321 movement was numbered 145.012-68 (and that number is etched inside the case back), and each movement has a serial number engraved on it. During 1968, Omega switched to a new movement – an evolution of the 321, but now known as the 861, which is still the basis for Speedmaster Professional watches you could buy new today. With it, they also updated the model number to 145.022-68, but everything else looks the same.

So with my watch, I could tell by the case (twisted lugs, dot over 90 bezel) dial (long indices, applied metal logo) and hands (flat bottomed chrono) that it was either a late 145.012 or a 145.022, known as a “transitional”. I paid for the watch, and got it shipped straight to Simon Freese, a watchmaker with lots of experience in Speedmasters.

Result. It’s a 321. And the watch was is great shape, as it had been offered at auction looking a bit grubby – a tell-tale that it’s not been tarted up by some dealer trying to maximise his margin.

The thing is, even after it was ultrasonically cleaned, the bracelet looked great on the surface but was chock full of 50 years of dirt…

Nothing for it but a painstaking disassembly

…

… before thorough clean and put it back together.