145.012-67 ‘Ultraman’ Omega Speedmaster

For what is ‘just’ a Speedmaster with an orange hand, a great deal of lore surrounds the original Ultraman. For many years, there was contention in forums about just what was or was not kosher. Did production cover multiple years? Was the hand produced in collaboration with the Japanese TV series? Did the TV series just mod theirs to match? Eventually, Omega themselves weighed in and settled the debate, noting that orange hands appeared on a small run of 145.012s and would confirm with an extract. But not any Omega orange hand, as this hand was specific to this run of watches. Yeah, we’re about to enter Wilsdorf levels of anorak here.

In 1968 the rare orange hand Speedmaster made an appearance in the Japanese TV series Ultraman. We still don’t know in 2022 why Omega chose to produce just a few 145.012s within a specific serial range with orange hands totally unrelated to that series. We know only that some are genuine, delivered from Bienne. Only a few genuine examples of these are known. 50 is an estimate but likely number; all that is known is that the genuine article is not common. TOHO studios created the TV series and its creator, Eiji Tsuburaya is likely to have been a watch collector. Many of his TV series featured quite nuanced watches for their characters, so this orange-hand was likely not a coincidence but choice by the creator. What a badass.

There is one known way to determine a genuine Ultraman: that is to measure the orange precisely. I defer here to Roy & Sacha Davidoff or Speedmaster101, who I remember stating somewhere a specific measurement. Whatever it is, the end needs to extend beyond the outer seconds track, which this one seems to. Please, do your own research. The serial range these oddities emerged from is around 26.076.xxx and 26.079.xxx, a 3000 example range. The rest is period Speedmaster: a 321, DON bezel, and 1039 bracelet.

This example sports a very strong overall appearance. Wear on the case is present but light, with surface scratches throughout but factory lines to my eye. Its DON bezel is faded ever so slightly and peppered with patina. The dial is well-preserved, with small paint degradation in tiny areas but overall very strong. The tritium is full cream, matched in all applications. That orange second hand, that all important hand, looks correct and long to me but these are things which must be measured. If this is an Ultraman, I’d expect an extract from Omega with note of that. They usually add in the additional notes section ‘fitted with special orange hand’, or something like that, when an Ultraman matches their records of production. It comes from one of the largest names in watch media though, so I’d imagine they’re already on that.

Find this Ultraman 145.012-67 here from Revolution for 80000 USD.