Introduction
The purpose of this website is to assist the avid collector in finding, what the author will argue, is the “correct” original Speedmaster to be produced with a quartz movement in a Moonwatch Professional case. This was model ST 186.0004 nicknamed LCD Moonwatch by the community. Unnumbered, the production ran over a year and a half period, in the late seventies, from 1977 to 1979.
This guide is an attempt to navigate through the parts of the standard production LCD Moonwatch as well as the so called Alaska IV Prototypes made in 1978 for NASA Shuttle Pilots.
The watch has been commonly seen with the following :
- 1 single common bezel
- 2 dial types
- 2 claimed case differences
- 2 claimed case back differences
- 2 claimed pushers differences
- 2 movement types
- 1 bracelet and end links
It needs to be appreciated that the study of vintage watches is always the study of probability as today’s accurate production methods were not those used 30 years ago.
What the author has tried to do in establishing the true heritage of this watch, is to sift through observations, descriptions, commentaries, images and actual watches to come to what is effectively a consensus … and thus this study should never be used dogmatically.