ST 145.022-68

Overview

In 1968 Omega changed the Speedmaster’s engine and almost nothing else. The calibre 321 — column wheel, 18,000 vph, a decade of service — gave way to the calibre 861, and the first watches built around the new movement kept the outgoing 145.012’s face wholesale: applied metal Ω logo, long hour plots, DON bezel, seahorse caseback. Collectors call the result the Transitional, and the name is exact: a 321-era watch with an 861 heart, produced for roughly one year before the -69 redrew the dial.

Two firsts and two lasts frame the reference. It is the first calibre 861 Speedmaster and the first of the 145.022 family. It is the last steel Speedmaster with an applied dial logo, and the last reference whose entire production predates the Moon landing — every -68 was built in 1968 or the first half of 1969, before Apollo 11. (The -69 shares the pre-moon caseback but only went on sale in December 1969, after the landing.) Until now this library treated the -68 inside the family entry; the house tracks it separately everywhere else — its own trends line, its own realized ledger — so it stands alone here too. The -69, -71 and later sub-variants remain in the family entry.

The calibre 861 arrives

The 861 is a Lemania-derived hand-wound chronograph (17 jewels, roughly 48-hour reserve) beating at 21,600 vibrations per hour. Against the 321 it replaced: cam switching instead of a column wheel — flat stamped cams working the levers, cheaper to mass-produce and functionally just as reliable, with visibly plainer finishing; a higher beat rate (21,600 vs. 18,000 vph) with a flat hairspring terminal curve instead of a Breguet overcoil. And the NASA footnote, stated plainly: every Apollo flight-qualified Speedmaster was a calibre 321 watch; the 861 was re-qualified by NASA only in 1978, for Shuttle-era missions. The -68 is Apollo-era and pre-landing — it is not an Apollo-flown reference.

Case & caseback

The 42 mm asymmetrical case with twisted lyre lugs carried over from the 145.012 unchanged — screw-down caseback, round pushers, Ω-signed crown. Cases were made by Huguenin Frères; the hallmark sits inside the back alongside the two-digit sub-variant stamp, -68. The outside of the back is the hippocampus (seahorse) with SPEEDMASTER text — the “pre-moon” back, making no reference to any landing. A -68 wearing a straight-writing or medallion back has had it swapped; the back is part of the identification, not an accessory.

The dial — the identification core

The dial is the 145.012’s, continued: black matte, stepped — the center raised, the step’s shadow ringing it just outside the minute track — with tritium plots, subdials at 3/6/9, and the four-line signature Ω OMEGA / Speedmaster / PROFESSIONAL, tritium “T” marks flanking the lower text. Two features do the identifying:

• The applied logo. The Ω is a separate metal piece, pinned to the dial on feet — the last steel Speedmaster dial to carry one. From the -69 on, the logo is printed paint. This single detail is the -68’s signature and its premium — and therefore its biggest forgery surface (see the checklist).
• Long hour plots. The plots run all the way to the base of the minute track, as on the 145.012. The -69 shortened them. Applied logo + long plots + step + 861 inside = transitional; any one element missing breaks the identification.

Bezel, hands, crystal

Bezel: the DON — “Dot Over Ninety” insert: dot above the 90, the 70’s dot diagonal to the numeral’s lower right, TACHYMÈTRE with the accent over the E. On the -68 the DON is not an early-production variant — it is simply correct, on every example: this is the last reference where that is true. (The DON→DNN crossover belongs to the -69’s run, around fall 1970.) Hands: baton hour/minute with tritium fill; the chrono seconds hand runs long, through the base of the minute track, with the flat counterweight standardized from this reference. Crystal: hesalite with the Ω etched at center — correct on every -68, polishable, frequently replaced (fine if acknowledged).

Bracelet

The period fit is the 1039 flat-link with 516 endlinks, clasp date-stamped to the era — realized examples surface on it dated 1969. The expandable 1506/16 is also documented on a -68 (a 2023 Antiquorum result, below). Check clasp date stamps against the watch, and treat an undated modern bracelet as what it is: a later fitting, priced accordingly.

Serials

An Omega Archives extract with a matching mid-26M–27.3M serial is the strongest support a -68 can carry. Published observation runs wider: Speedmaster101’s serial survey records -68 examples from 26,555,xxx to 27,71x,xxx — an observed range from surviving watches, noted here as observation, not archive confirmation. The movement serial, the inside caseback stamp, and the dial must all three agree; on this reference, two out of three is a negotiation, not a confirmation.

The record, kept separately

Most published 145.022 numbers pool the whole family. This house keeps the -68 on its own line, and its record reads differently from the family’s:

• Tracked: about 102 listings on the -68’s own board at the November 6, 2026 close — swept nightly, asking prices only.
• Realized: eight sourced auction results on file, 2007–2026, each tied to a published lot page (Antiquorum, Bonhams, Catawiki). One stands for the set: Bonhams, New York, December 4, 2017 — $8,125 realized, an all-original transitional with its Extract from the Archives. The complete ledger, every record with its source, is the members’ archive.
• Stamp-verified: the house’s verified realized archive counts one -68 sale under its verification stamp — eBay, sold August 24, 2026 at $5,500, the venue’s own sold record re-verified against the live page on September 22, 2026 — of 13 verified sales across 7 reference groups house-wide (the public count lives on the comps page).
• Asking today: the weekly Glass Case median asking price for the -68 stood at $9,597 as of October 31, 2026 (n=9; observed range $6,243–$10,574). Asking is what sellers hope for — it is labeled asking here, and it is not a realized price.

What to check before buying

• Applied logo first. Confirm the Ω is truly applied metal with feet — not glued, not painted. The -68 premium makes logo fakes and dial-swapped -69s the highest-risk play in this family. An Omega Archives extract with a matching mid-26M–27.3M serial is the strongest support.
• Long plots, stepped dial. Plots must reach the minute track’s base and the step must be present. A printed logo or short plots on a claimed -68 ends the conversation — that is a -69 dial, whatever the caseback says.
• The movement must be an 861 in the serial band. A 321 inside a -68-stamped case (or an 861 far outside 26M–27.7M) means the watch was assembled, not born.
• Bezel correctness. The DON is the most commonly swapped part in vintage Speedmasters. Check the dot-at-70 position, the narrow C, and the accent over the E — and give a crisp DON on a worn watch extra scrutiny.
• Caseback both sides. Seahorse outside, -68 stamp and Huguenin Frères hallmark inside, consistent with the serial era. A moon-text back on a -68 is a swap.
• Tritium honesty. Plots and hands aged together, no UV-green glow on an “original” dial; chocolate/tropical browning should be uneven in the way real aging is.
• Bracelet dating. 1039/516 with era-correct clasp stamps; anything else disclosed and priced as a later fitting.