My Omega Speedmaster misadventure

Last Thursday turned out to be a very interesting day. I am currently slowing down on my watch collecting and am actually looking to 'close' my collection and stop buying watches. I have most of the watches that I want and I suddenly realised that I only have two hands. I will be cataloging my collection on this blog soon.

The 'missing' piece from my collection is a watch with the tri-compax chronograph dial layout. I have the 'other' layout, the 6, 9 and 12, with the ETA 7750 and Lemania 5100. What I am looking for is the 3, 6 and 9 layout design. The watches that would fit this craving would be the Omega Speedmaster or the older Zenith with the El-Primero movement. It would be nice if I could get either the Rolex Daytona or the Breguet Type XXI, but budget is limited.

As luck would have it, one of the shops that deals with pre-loved watches had an Omega Speedmaster for sale. And not just any Speedmaster but the 35th Anniversary model. Yeah, the white/ silver dial model 3569.31.00 and at a great price. So I decided to get it.

However the shop only opens after lunch. I was out early, so to pass the time, I went to the 24-hour bookshop, Eslite. This is where the misadventure started. One of the tenant in Eslite is an Apple reseller. I wonder around the shop and had a look at one of the 15 inch MacBook Pro. The sales person came and we started talking. Hook, line and sinker. I ended up with a 15 inch MacBook Pro. The deal was just too sweet. SIGH!!!!

Looked at my budget and realised that I could still get both, the MacBook Pro and an Omega Speedmaster. How is this possible? Well, they also had the normal Speedmaster version on sale. The model 3570.50.00. So paid for the MacBook Pro and went to the shop.

I guess that sometimes, somethings are not meant to be. The Speedmaster was beautiful, but two things held me back. First was the price. It was OK, but without box or papers. A tad high for a watch with no papers. Second and more important, the chronograph second hand was a bit bent at the tip. So with the chronograph reset at zero, the tip pointed at the first second. Sigh!!!!

I guess the people there know that I was interested in getting a Speedmaster. So they offered me another watch. The 'Michael Schumacher' Speedmaster. This is the one from the 90s with yellow dial, model 3510.12.00. This is the Speedmaster Reduced. This watch is fitted with the Omega Caliber 3220, which is an automatic movement. I prefer the Omega Caliber 1861, which is a hand wound movement. I have to say that I do like the watch but did not get it.

Photographs: Omega

Well I guess it was not meant to be. We will have to see what happens in the future...