Posted by For as long as I’ve been aware of the Speedmaster 125, I’ve been aware of the advice to insist on movement pics to make sure you are getting a true, COSC-certified chronometer and not a run-of-the-mill 1040. You’d think that you’d be more likely to find more shady eBay listings for Speedmaster 125’s with a pedestrian, non-chronometer cal. 1040 under the hood than cal. 1040 references hiding a rare, one of only 2,000 cal. 1041. That’s not the case, however.
In almost a year of documenting 1040 and 1041 serial numbers, I’ve seen over 400 movement/case combinations, but I have yet to see a cal. 1040 in a Speedmaster 125, but I’ve seen cal. 1041 in four different cal. 1040 references.
Maybe that makes sense, at least in twisted eBay logic, since a 1040 in a Speedmaster 125 is seen as an obvious scam or frankenwatch, while a cal. 1041 chronometer movement in say a 176.007 might be seen (by the seller of course) as an “upgrade”.
This week’s oddity is one such “chronometer” grade cal. 1041 ref. 176.007. It is listed as sold, and I’m not sure when it sold since I just became aware of this example recently.
This watch, rather this movement, is interesting for a couple of other reasons. First, it clearly has a bridge from cal. 1041 with a serial number stamped on it, and the rotor has a short “R-serial” on it. The R serial is a typical sign that a cal. 1040 has had a service rotor or entire movement installed on a cal. 1040 reference. It is unusual to see this on cal. 1041, since the serial number is on the bridge. And if it was a whole movement swap, the original serial wouldn’t still be on the bridge. So we know the rotor isn’t original to the movement, and the movement isn’t original to the watch.
Second, the serial on the bridge is the highest serial number I’ve seen on any cal. 1040 or 1041, and only the second that begins with 4. I don’t doubt that the bridge is legitimate, but it becomes an interesting feature on an otherwise undesirable amalgamation of parts.The watch itself looks nice when assembled, and perhaps it runs as it should, but this sort of thing is not up to collector standards. At least the seller did the right thing by including movement shots, otherwise there could be an unhappy buyer on the other end of the deal.
Top image is a screenshot of retrovintagewatches.com from September 2016
