Well, this is downright interesting. Here we have the second “found in a drawer” Omega to surpass the $100k mark in a little over a week. It sold for $110,700 (including buyer’s premium) through Live Auctioneers, which represented Flannery's Estate Services in the digital auction.
This Speedmaster Ref. 2998-1 sold for $110,700 on a pre-sale estimate of $500 to $1,000.
There's something curious about this, though. We noticed that bidding went all the way up to $130,000 on this one, sans buyer's premium, though now it seems to have reverted to $90,000 before the premium, giving us the final $110,700 figure. I have reached out to Flannery's Estate Services multiple times to try to get more information here, and neither my email nor my phone calls have been returned. I will update this story if we learn any more.
The watch in question is a reference 2998-1 Speedmaster, produced between 1959 and 1962, which was the first Speedy to come exclusively with the black bezel that served as a major design turning point toward the Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. Incidentally, though a reference 2998-1 may not have touched down on the lunar surface, it did in fact go up into space, in 1962, on the wrist of Astronaut Wally Schirra. It was Schirra’s personal chronograph, not official government issue.
Bidding started at just $250, with a laughable estimate of $500 to $1,000. As you can see, the watch did not fly under the radar and the end results were in a totally different ballpark.
The record- breaking Ref. 2915-1, which sold for $275,508 in Sweden.
The watch that sold last week was this guy over here,which broke the $275,000 mark at Bukowski’s Auction House in Sweden. That's a record for the Ref. CK 2915-1 "Broad Arrow," the first Speedmaster and a grail for Speedy lovers.