Originally Posted by
Stanford
This is an extract from Chuck's own article "Speedmaster Automatic c. 1045 in Detail".
As can be read, he searched beyond the USA for examples:
376.0822 Moonwatch case
For the final (unfortunately) installment in the Omega experience with the Lemania movement, Omega decided to produce a model of the c.1045 line which is probably the model they should have produced in the first place. Choosing the Moonwatch case as it's inspiration, only offered in 1987, the 376.0822 nearly certainly had a production run (unnumbered) of under 2,000, probably under 1,600, possibly 1,300 or even fewer [¿1,000?]. The 376.0822 was the first Automatic movement offered in a full-sized (about 1mm thicker) moonwatch case, first time Omega offered Day-Date on a Speedmaster, a watch that is nearly as easy to read as a moonwatch under duress and it has a lot more things going on the dial than a moonwatch.
It's also a watch which has become known among collectors as "The Grail". Why? It's a long story...
A personal admission: I'm the one to blame for "the Grail Watch" moniker...
My first Vintage Omega eBay purchase was nearly a 376.0822 out of Germany in January of 1999. Because the 376.0822 was in Germany, I didn't know any German (hell anyone in Germany at the time), I went instead for a 176.012 (the most common of the 7-8 Speedmaster c.1045 variants which sports a Mark II/IV style case) out of Iowa for around the same money (about $600 USD). I had owned my Mark II for 15 years at this point, that style case was a known quantity to me, and if I had a problem with the watch I figured I could gas up my Explorer and drive out to Iowa if need be, I couldn't really do that with the German watch.
About a month later I realized I wish I had bought both examples... So I stared looking for another example to purchase. And I searched, and searched, and searched. The only one I found was listed at over $10,000 on a Japanese website and there wasn't a speck of English on that site aside from "Omega Speedmaster" and Arabic numbers. It took me a year and a half to find another one (aside from the Japanese origin one) offered for sale and it was on eBay out of Philadelphia. I got into a three way shootout for it with a fellow TZOFer and one of the well healed Japanese collectors and came out in 3rd place with an winning bid well north of $2,700 (this is summer 2001). I finally tracked one down about six to eight months later with the help of another TZOFer and brought home my example. During this quest I searched with the intensity that King Arthur searched for the Holy Grail and I began calling this model "the Grail" because I was that obsessed with it.
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I know at least a half a dozen collectors who now own the Grail who can tell similar tales of the hunt, the near miss(es), the disappointment, the despair and the final joy of getting one. Hence, "the Grail"!
As for the 376.0822 (Grail) itself...
* It is considered one of the rarest of the c.1045 Speedmasters (only the Mark V comes close to the Grail's rarity).
* It is the first time Omega offered a Moonwatch case styled Speedmaster with:
an Automatic Movement
Day
Date in a window aperture (the 345.0809 had a date pointer)
24-hour indication
* It also utilizes the 1450 bracelet, which was by far the best bracelet Omega had used with the Speedmaster up until that time and is highly coveted by collectors
* It sports the most easily readable dial of the c.1045 Speedmasters. (frankly, the other c.1045's dial readability isn't even in the same league as the Grail. I've had owners of other c.1045 Speedmasters scoff at this assertion until I pull out my 376.0822 and bit tongues and cheeks rapidly occur)