The Fab Four - my quartet of JDM Seiko 6139-60xx Speed-timers

Time to feature my quartet of JDM Seiko 5 Sports 6139-60xx Speed-timers!

This blue one featured below was my first 6139-60xx acquisition. It missed being my birth year birth month grail (August 1969) by a few months, not a few months later, but rather, a few months earlier!

Seiko 5 Speed-timer 6139-6000, circa March 1969

I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I first saw the ad....the photos were terrible, but it looked like a reasonably good condition JDM Seiko 5 Sports Speed-timer 6139-6000, Proof dial, Proof back, notch case, 2-piece chrono hand, original bracelet....but I couldn't quite discern the serial number.

After a quick exchange of emails, if I wasn't hyperventilating before, I most certainly was hyperventilating now....the serial number was 93xxxx, making it a very very early automatic chronograph from March 1969 (Heuer and Zenith experts, read 'em and weep)!!!
*** I have ever only seen a couple of earlier ones from Feb 1969. If anyone knows of one that dates earlier than that, please let me know!!! ***

Seiko 6139-6000, March 1969 

Usually I would never buy a vintage watch without seeing a photo of the movement, but in this instance, I felt I had to make an exception.

My Ebay stars must have been aligned, cos within a few days, I had won the auction!! Woohoo!!

And guess what? It took all of only 48 hours for her to arrive from Tokyo...she was dropped off at the post office on Sunday morning, by Tuesday morning it had shown up at my doorstep...an incredible level of efficiency only found, very fittingly, in Japan!

In the flesh, it is, undoubtedly, a stunning watch.

I had thought my earlier acquisition (it's close cousin, the bezel-less 6139-6010) was a pretty darn good looking creature, but this 6139-6000 definitely steals the show...with her elegant and enigmatic blue dial offset by the red of the 'Speed-timer' script and the 2 chrono hands, and all framed within that unique case, and a much better designed bracelet...she's just so achingly beautiful.

21 Jewel 6139A movement

A quick trip to my watchmaker made me even more ecstatic - he popped open the back to reveal a pristine, period correct, 21J 6139A movement, Seiko's effort at the world's first automatic chronograph movement - read more about this at my earlier post here.

Seiko 5 Speed-timer 6139-6030, circa Jan 1970

My next target was what I then considered to be the prettiest Speed-timer of 'em all, the 6139-6030, with a unique contrasting silver sub-dial on a black dial...I dub this the 'Coke' as opposed to the blue 'Pepsi' of the 6139-6000.

For the longest time, I was lusting over this one from Spain, but sadly, a deal never materialized....

I wanted to patiently wait for a correct early JDM one with a notch case, Proof dial, Proof caseback, 21J, 6139A movement, and after several months of online trawling, I finally found one...not mint by any stretch of the imagination, with some discolouration of the silver subdial, but otherwise in an excellent, original condition. 

Dating to Jan 1970, this one even had the original, and very funky, bracelet and original 'Seiko 5 Sports' clasp!

I stopped looking out for Seiko 6139s for quite a while after this one. 

I disliked the fact that I could not hand-wind the recessed crown, so I started dabbling with Seiko 6138s, a slightly later, hand-windable movement, and of course, also moved on to other collectable watches.

So for several years, I lived quite contentedly with the above 2 Speedtimer 6139s...the blue 'Pepsi' and the black 'Coke', and didn't feel the need for another one of these.

But all this while there was an exception - I promised to myself if I ever were to find a yellow 6139-6000, famously nicknamed the 'Pogue' (after Col. William Pogue, who wore his Export variant into space, thus making his Seiko 6139 the first automatic chronograph in space), I would grab it.
Do read more about Col. Pogue, his space exploits while wearing his iconic yellow Seiko here and here.

But these were not easy to find at all, especially the JDM variant I was gunning for, the Speed-timer predecessor of the 'Pogue'.

It was only a couple of years later that I managed to find one from Japan. 

Once again, it wasn't mint, with an inner bezel that had faded from the original yellow to white, and with some discolouration of the subdial, but otherwise, the overall condition externally was pretty darn good for a watch from May 1969.

And as with these early variants, it had a 'Proof' dial, 'Proof' back and that unique notched case.

So finally, I had nabbed my 'grail' Seiko 5 Sports Speed-timer 6139-6000 in yellow!

So I figured that just about 'completed' by 6139-60xx family, since I had no interest in the silver dial Export variant.

But there exists another JDM Speed-timer 6139-600x, a rarely seen beast with a blue dial and 'sunrise' markings around the subdial.

I had actually found one years ago, but stupidly gave it up to a fellow collector, but when I came across another one recently, I knew I couldn't pass it up this time.

Again, the photos on the ad were absolute rubbish, but this model aren't exactly common enough to grow on trees, so I had to take a (rather expensive) gamble purchase.

When it finally arrived, yes, there was disappointing discolouration around the lume markers, but other than that, the rest of the watch was fine, with an awesome brushed metallic teal dial just has to be seen to be appreciated...in different light, it can appear anywhere from blue to green, from dull to shimmering, and overall it's just simply alluring!

So that really, finally, definitively completed by 6139-60xx collection...the commonest blue dialled 'Pepsi, the black dialled 'Coke, the rare yellow dialled 'Pogue', and the rarest one of them all, the brushed metallic teal dialled 6139-6002 'Exotic' or 'Sunrise'.

If the teal 'Sunrise' represented Spring while the yellow 'Pogue' represented Summer, could the blue 'Pepsi' be Autumn, and the black 'Coke' be Winter?

That'll make 'Le quattro stagioni' of JDM Seiko 5 Sports 6139-60xx Speed-timers!

How's that for a collection? =P