Omega Speedmaster Professional - Reference 145.012 - Caliber 321 - DON Bezel - Original 1039 Bracelet - Full Set - 1967

On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin stepped down from the lunar module Eagle onto the surface of the Moon with an Omega Speedmaster Professional strapped to the outside of his pressure suit. The watch had been qualified by NASA in 1965 after the most demanding endurance protocol any wristwatch had been subjected to, beating Rolex, Breitling, Longines, and every other candidate the agency tested. Inside that watch, and inside every Speedmaster carried by the astronauts on Apollo 11, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and the Apollo-Soyuz mission, was the Caliber 321, a column wheel chronograph movement designed by Albert Piguet at Lemania in 1942 and adopted by Omega as the heart of the Speedmaster from the watch's introduction in 1957. The Caliber 321 is among the most important chronograph movements in the history of watchmaking, and the Speedmaster Professional is among the few wristwatches that has earned an unimpeachable place in twentieth century cultural history. This is one of those watches.

The 145.012 sits at a specific and significant moment in the Speedmaster line. It is the final reference Omega produced with the Caliber 321 inside it. In 1968 Omega began transitioning to the easier-to-manufacture Caliber 861 with the 145.022, and the column wheel architecture that had defined the Speedmaster for more than a decade ended its production run inside this case. The 145.012 carries the asymmetric case with crown guards that became the signature Speedmaster profile, the lyre or twisted lugs drawn for Omega by Gerald Genta, the larger five by three and a half millimeter chronograph pushers that distinguish it from the earlier 105.012, and the same forty-two millimeter stainless steel construction that NASA had qualified four years earlier. Collectors specifically pursue the 145.012 because it represents the last expression of the original Speedmaster, the closing chapter of the column wheel era, and the most accessible point of entry into Caliber 321 collecting.

The dial is the original step dial with the applied metal Omega logo at twelve, three lines of printing reading OMEGA / Speedmaster / PROFESSIONAL, and the T SWISS MADE T designation at six o'clock that documents the use of tritium luminous material. The three subdials sit in the classic Speedmaster 9-12-3 layout, running seconds at nine, twelve hour totalizer at six, thirty minute counter at three. The dial and lume are in genuinely pristine condition for a watch of this age. Most surviving 145.012s show meaningful tritium degradation by now, with bald spots in the plots, lume that has crumbled and fallen out of the markers, or hand lume that has separated and detached. This dial has none of that. The plots are complete, the lume is intact across all of the indices and all of the hands, and the tritium has aged into the warm creamy beige that only six decades of slow oxidation produce, with the lume on the hands matching the lume on the plots in the way only an original undisturbed dial does. The hour and minute hands are the original sword and dauphine configuration, and the chronograph second hand carries the spear-tipped end correct to this reference.

Speedmaster collecting is built on a single principle, and that principle is correctness. The harsh truth of the surviving 145.012 market is that nearly every example trading today has at least one compromised component, and most have several. The crown was replaced during a service decades ago. The DON bezel was swapped for a later dot-next-to-90 variant or a service replacement that costs between fifteen hundred and four thousand dollars to put right. The original 1039 bracelet was lost or replaced with a later 1171, or the watch shows up on an aftermarket leather strap. The acid etched hippocampus on the caseback was polished into a ghost. The original red box and the guarantee booklet are gone. Speedmaster101 estimates that examples retaining every original component represent a small minority of the surviving population, and finding one that has been recently and correctly serviced on top of being fully original is not a question of money but of patience. This watch is one of those examples, and every component that drives 145.012 valuation is original and correct.

The bezel is the original DON, with the dot above the ninety on the tachymeter scale visible at the correct angle and rendered in printing that has held its sharpness across six decades when most surviving DONs have either faded into illegibility or been replaced by service variants. The crown is the original 24-tooth flat foot variant with the applied Omega logo, period correct for 1967 production and almost never surviving on watches of this age because Omega replaced flat foot crowns with later service crowns through the routine maintenance of the seventies and eighties. The two large round chronograph pushers flanking the crown are original and unsigned, correct to the reference. The case shows honest wear without polishing, the lug bevels and edges remaining sharp where they are typically the first thing to disappear under a polishing wheel. The crystal carries the original Omega seal, applied at the factory and intact in a way that no service crystal would ever carry. The original solid caseback is included with the watch, stamped on the inner side OMEGA WATCH Co / FAB. SUISSE / SWISS MADE / ACIER INOXYDABLE / SP / 145012-67, and engraved on the outer side with the Speedmaster hippocampus that is acid etched into the steel and easily polished into oblivion by careless servicing. This caseback is sharp and unworn. The inner caseback seal is present. The case is currently fitted with an aftermarket sapphire display caseback I added to allow the Caliber 321 movement to be viewed without removing the caseback, and the original solid caseback is shipped with the watch in case the next owner prefers to return it to factory configuration.

The bracelet is the original 1039 flat link with the 516 end links, the configuration that left Omega with the watch in 1968. The clasp is stamped No.13 / STEELINOX / OMEGA SWISSMADE / 2/68 / 1039, dating the bracelet to the second month of 1968 and confirming its correctness as period production matched to the watch. The 1039 with 516 end links is one of the most frequently lost or substituted components on surviving 145.012s, and its presence here, in correct configuration with the proper end link reference, is a meaningful element of the watch's overall correctness. The watch ships with the original red leather Omega presentation box and the original cream cardboard outer box, both visible in the photographs, and with the original Omega International Guarantee booklet carrying the gold World Service Organization seal on the cover. The last page of the booklet is missing, almost certainly removed at some point in the watch's life to accompany a service request, which was the conventional use of that page when an owner sent the watch back to Omega for maintenance. The booklet is otherwise intact and original to the watch.

To find a 145.012-67 with the original DON bezel intact, the original 24-tooth flat foot crown unreplaced, the original 1039 bracelet with 516 end links, the original solid caseback with the hippocampus engraving sharp and unworn, the original red presentation box and the original cardboard outer box, the original Omega International Guarantee booklet, the original Omega seal on the crystal, the inner caseback seal in place, the dial and lume undisturbed and intact, and a recent professional service all together in the same watch is genuinely rare. Examples that meet two or three of these criteria appear in the market regularly. Examples that meet all of them are the watches Speedmaster collectors spend years searching for.

The watch has been fully serviced. The movement was completely disassembled, the column wheel and chronograph train cleaned and inspected, pivots cleaned with pegwood, all jewels oiled including the balance jewels, and the movement reassembled and regulated. The chronograph operates correctly, with start, stop, and reset all functioning as they should, and the watch is running well.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

Because this watch has been fully serviced, I provide a one-year limited warranty on the movement. If the movement develops a functional issue under normal use within one year of purchase, I will repair it at no cost for labor. This warranty does not cover anything related to the case, dial, hands, crystal, pushers, crown, bracelet, strap, or cosmetic condition, and it excludes any issue caused by external factors including but not limited to impact or dropping, case damage of any kind, shock, improper use, tampering or attempted repair by anyone other than me, water or moisture exposure, humidity, condensation, magnetism, corrosion, or loss of parts. Any shipping costs associated with warranty service are the buyer's responsibility unless otherwise agreed in writing.

All sales final.