The reference 105 012 marks a particulary significant part of the Speedmaster story.
Contrary to what was believed until recently, the Professional inscription was not added in July 1965, following NASA’s certification of the Speedmaster for its astronauts, as a kind of tribute to these super-professionals. If this is true, then all the dials of the models produced before that date shouldn’t have such inscription.
After lengthy research with the help of the OMEGA Museum, we can state that this version of the facts is not quite exact. The Professional inscription is a feature of the ST 105.012 model with the new caseband design and it appeared on the dial of this model from the start of its production during the first quarter of 1964.
The conclusive proof can be found on the first ST 105.012 models with case reference 105.012-63 and with movements numbered between 20.520.xxx and 20.521.xxx. Their dials have the Professional inscription but lack the Ts on either side of SWISS MADE. The T countermark was made mandatory by the Swiss government in 1964 to denote radioactivity in luminous dials. The production of dials with the T countermark started in April 1964, but the assembly and delivery of models with T-less dials could have continued until around July 1964.
The fact that Professional dials without Ts were fitted until the summer of 1964 proves that these were factory-fitted dials and confirms that the Professional inscription appeared well before July 1965 and has nothing to do with NASA’s certification of Speedmaster. Thus the 105.012-63 with its first two dial configurations could be seen as an historical representative of the first Speedmaster Professionals to be made.
