Stainless steel Speedmaster, reference 145.012 'Red Racing' chronograph wristwatch. Made 1968

Information

• Brand: OMEGA
• Year: 1968
• Model:  Speedmaster
• Reference: 145.012
• Calibre: 321
• Movement:  Manual
• Material: Stainless steel
• Features/complications: Chronograph
• Dial: Black matt dial featuring luminous painted baton indexes with red accents on the hour markers, outer minute/seconds divisions, outermost 1/5 second divisions featuring subsidiary seconds at 9 o’clock, 30 minute register at 3 o’clock and 12 hour register at 6 o’clock with luminous red baton hour and minute hands with white arrowhead centre chronograph seconds
• Case dimensions: 42mm
• Bracelet/strap: Stainless steel bracelet
• Accessories: Extract from the Archives
• SKU: 03162

Essay

The Speedmaster Racing dial is one of the most rare configurations of Speedmasters. Previously believed to be a later assembly or put together from spare parts by retailers, It has recently been proven that the Speedmaster racing watches were an extremely limited production run. Perhaps to gauge interest before full scale production started.

There were two generations of Speedmaster Racing and three versions: two with a calibre 321 and the second with an 861. The first had a very unusual dial configuration; aside from the additional red and white accents, the characteristics and typeface of the dial mirrored the ref. 2915: the original Speedmaster from 1957, with no ‘professional’ on the dial. The second had the ‘printed logo’ similar to Speedmasters after 1969.

It is believed that as few, if not fewer than 20 of these first generation Speedmaster Racing Dials left the factory in Switzerland.

The Racing dial has some distinctive features which set it apart from normal Speedmasters: The dial minute scale is a white checkered pattern for more precise reading and the hour markers are half white/half red. The time-keeping hands are all painted red and those that correspond with the chronograph are white.