Written by Chuck Maddox , on 24 November 2000.
Last Revised: 26 January 2001, 16:49 GMT.
Certain rights reserved...

Recently a poster in the Omega Forum mentioned four possible potential criteria for spotting c.321 Speedmasters:

  1. The presence of a non-Moon case back (just a simple engraved sea monster)?
  2. No 'Professional' on the dial?
  3. The no crown guard style case?
  4. The metal applied Omega symbol on the dial?

It is my belief that the answer is: none of the above!

These items are possible indications of the presence of a c.321 but none of these guarantee that the c.321 is "under the hood"...

For Example:

This item is posted for sale on a well known watchseller's site:

This item is posted for sale on a different watchseller's site:

Figure 1

Figure 2

Omega - Speedmaster - Pre Moon - Stainless Steel - No Crown Guard - Near Mint ++ - 17 Jewel Manual Wind, CAL 321, Black Dial, Silver Hands and Luminous Markers, Round Pushers, Signed Crown, Screw Back, 40 1/2mm Case, Stainless Steel Omega Bracelet, Completely Serviced, 90 day service warranty, Priced at x,xxx.xx

Omega - 17 Jewels,3 register, early 60's type movement,functions well,in PERFECT condition., excellent+ Waterproof SS, round pushers,60's Speedmaster, Man on the Moon, case and Omega bracelet Condition PRISTEEN!!, mint+ ORIGINAL Omega Speedmaster Black Mat with Lum. dots, original hands,all in PRISTEEN condition. Additional [images].. 1966 Man-on-the-Moon Omega Speedmaster "Pre-Professional" Chrono and Bracelet in MINT condition! (Ref dmOGA10064)

Ok, so in Figure 1 we have a pre-moon straight lug case (pre-1966) with a post c.861 (post-1968) dial... So either we have an early watch with a new dial, or a new movement and dial put into an old case. With respect to the watch in Figure 1, either way, we have a put-together watch...

Ok, so in Figure 2 above we have a pre-pro dial (pre-1966) with a Professional (post-1965) case... So either we have an newer watch with a early dial, or a old movement and dial put into an newer case. With respect to the watch in Figure 2, in either instance we have a put-together watch...

Hey... maybe this watch (Figure 2) has the original dial for the other watch (Figure 1) and the first watch (Figure 1) has the dial for for this one (Figure 2)! Maybe someone can take these two put-together watches and make two non-put-togethers from them! =)

A third instance is a personal one when I found what I thought to be the twin of my 1967 Speedmaster Pro at the Chicago Jeweler's mall. It looked identical with an applied metal logo, but in rougher shape. I mentioned it to David Greenspan who made a trip down to look at it, and this example turned out to be a c.861 from 1968 instead of a c.321 as in my ST145.012-67.

Thus the only way to be really sure that there is a c.321 movement under the dial or behind the caseback is to take the back off (or ask for a picture of the movement if you are buying on-line).

Even then, it is possible that the c.321 that is under the dial/caseback wasn't the original c.321 movement that came in that case. Frequently movements are replaced for various reasons. Omega made c.321 Seamasters and DeVille's as well as Speedmasters. So, it wouldn't be a leap to think that there are Speedmasters out there with movements that originally shipped from Bienne in DeVilles or Seamasters and vice versa... Additionally it is possible that a Speedmaster movement was switched for a movement from another Speedmaster, possibly a different model (swap a movement from a 105.003 into a CK2915 for example). This sometimes happens. Omega has records of which movements originally shipped from Bienne with which model case/caseback. E-mailing the serial number of the movement to Omega Vintage Information is a way of finding out more about the history of the watch. Sometimes movement/case changes are discovered this way...

I hope this helps...

-- Chuck


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