The grail JDM Speed-Timer 6138-8010

This next one's a little special.

For any Seiko 6138 collector, this guy needs no introduction - it's widely regarded as the rarest and most beautiful 6138 of all, and often quoted as the 'grail' of Seiko 6138s.

See this page for a comprehensive review of the various Seiko 6138 models.

Most 6138s were produced in large numbers, both for the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) and for international export. The JDM ones were usually marked 'Speed-Timer', with or without the 'Seiko 5 Sports' moniker, whereas the export versions were simply marked 'Seiko Automatic Chronograph'.

Not the 6138-8010 - this particular model was only ever released as a JDM model in 1972/73, and was apparently never released internationally, thus contributing to it's scarcity.

My particular piece dates to January 1973, and came with an original 'Seiko 5 Sports' signed bracelet that I believe is incorrect for this model, which possibly explains the relatively bargain price that I picked it up for! =P

The other feature special about this model is the beautiful 'Cotes de Geneve' dial in metallic iridescent blue, with a contrasting strip down the middle. It's the only 6138 as far as I know with such a blue dial and definitely the only 6138 with such a 'Cotes de Geneve' contrasting dial.

In real life, the dial is awesome to look at cos it changes colour depending on the angle of view and light, but it is incredibly difficult to capture in photographs.

Here are some of my better attempts, but trust me, the dial looks waaay better in real life.

I especially love the way the blue dial contrasts with the silver hands, the white of the lume markers and the 'Seiko 5 Sports' print, and the orange of the chrono hand and the 'Speed-Timer' script!

Seiko certainly got the design of this one perfectly spot-on!

Come to think of it...most 6138s I've encountered do look way better then they appear in photos!

I may have started my vintage Seiko automatic chronograph journey with the slightly older 6139 models (the first automatic chronographs available for mass retail), but over the years I have fallen even more deeply in love with the only slightly later Seiko 6138 - a movement that has so much going for it - powers 2 sub-dials, ability to hand-wind the crown, available in various 70s era funky case shapes, and has s stellar reputation for being a fuss free, low maintenance, reliable, workhorse movement - what's not to like???

Two rare Citizen 8110A chronos: 67-9313 'Speedmaster' & Walter Wolf Racing

I'd been happily collecting vintage Seikos for some time, but I'd not ventured to vintage Citizen territory till very recently.

One of the most well-regarded vintage Citizen chronographs on the 70s was the 67-9313, dubbed the 'Speedmaster' due to more than a passing resemblance to the iconic Omega moonwatch, including a dot-over-90 bezel! =P

There's lots on online material on the Citizen 'Speedy' - check out a couple of them here and here.

These are not easy to come by at all. You may find a few languishing on Ebay, but these usually have had a truly hard life and are consequently in a poor condition, or worse, they've been put together with mismatched or plain wrong parts.
I finally managed to source mine from the Vintage Citizen Forum - thanks Bogdan!
He had both the white and black dialled variants, but I'd always preferred the white dialled version.

On arrival, the 'Speedy' was as advertised - in an excellent condition and running perfectly fine.

The movement within is the well regarded Citizen 8110A that ticks all the right boxes - column wheel, vertical clutch, 28800bph flyback chronograph.

More details here.



With such an awesomely specced movement within, these vintage Citizen chronos must be the real deal right? Well, not quite...I have several minor quibbles regarding these...their naming nomenclature is confusing as hell, thus making it a bitch to search for them using an online search engine.
Plus, perhaps more importantly in this day and age where size matters, these guys are just a wee bit too small on the wrist, with miserably small crowns - maybe suitable for people with small hands?
A certain newly inaugurated president comes to mind.....=P



So what's better than one vintage iconic Citizen hi-beat, flyback chrono?
Why, two vintage iconic Citizen bi-beat flyback chronos, of course, duh!!! =)

There's generally a lot of interest amongst watch collectors in vintage chronographs with a racing pedigree, eg. the Siffert Autavia, the Bellof Montreal, the Jim Clark Enicar.

This one, from the other side of the world, is perhaps not so well known - the titanium Walter Wolf Citizen 8110A Chronograph.

I had to do some googling to find out about Walter Wolf Racing, but it does seem to have fairly eventful, though short-lived existence.

Their debut year 1977 was most definitely their best year, with their driver Jody Scheckter winning 3 races (Argentina - a win in their debut race!, Monaco and Canada) and achieving 6 other podium finishes to eventually finish 2nd behind Nikki Lauda in the world championship, with the team achieving 4th place in the constructors championship!

More details here.

This particular watch dates to Nov 1983 by serial number (gotta love these vintage Seikos and Citizens - their serial number allows one to date the watch to the month and year of production!), and is 39mm across.

Appearance wise, it's a little busy, what with cardinal directions on the countdown MH bezel, and the dial containing the prominent Walter Wolf logo, day (in Kanji)/date indicator, as well as the 2 subdials, all surrounded by the inner Tachymeter bezel.

But everything's arranged nice and neatly, and to me, overall, it's a pretty package!

Anyways, I think it's a big shame that this little Citizen flies just under the radar, just slightly unknown and unappreciated.

To me it's a gorgeous watch, which should have it's deserved, rightful place amongst its much more well-known Heuer and Enicar brethren!

Nov 1968 Speedmaster ST145.012-68SP

I had once owned a cal.861 ST145.022-69 Speedmaster pre-moon, but traded it off cos it didn't quite speak to me.

So I must have been pretty struck with the dreaded Watch Acquisition Syndrome when I started looking for a slightly earlier variant, the last Speedmaster variant to carry the column-wheel cal.321, the ST145.012.

ST145.012s from 1967 are fairly common, but I wanted the considerably less common variant, the ST145.012-68...these were literally the last c.321 Speedmasters, produced in late 1968 or so, before they transited to the cheaper to manufacture c.861 ST 145.022.

So I found this one on Fleabay - it's condition looked so-so - dial looked original but with the lume 'washed' off, hands likely service replacements, wrong DN90 bezel - under normal circumstances I would have walked away (and the experts at Omega Forum all seemed to agree), but it had one redeeming feature that I found irresistible - it came with Omega Archive papers stating the production date to be 11 Nov 1968. This meant that this watch was produced 'in the factory' at about the same time (give or take a few days) as yours truly!

When the watch arrived, it did appeal to me more than my previous cal.861 Speedy, but I wasn't satisfied with the 'washed' lume on the dial, so I promptly shipped it back to the UK to the master James Hyman to have the dial relumed - now I hear all the purists letting out a collective scream: "DO NOT RELUME YOUR VINTAGE WATCH!!!!"
I do know perfectly well that it will adversely affect it's resale value, but since I had no intention of selling it on, I felt no compelling reason why I shouldn't do whatever I wanted with it! =P

When I got it back from James it was much much better - but it was still not perfect - everytime I looked at it, the incorrect DN90 bezel bothered me immensely.

Trying to find a correct 'Dot Over 90' bezel is not impossible, but they were all super expensively overpriced.

Then I found one that was faded - extremely faded - in fact, faded enough to be termed a 'ghost' bezel.

There tends to be 2 distinct camps when it comes to ghost bezels, you either love it or hate it.

I, for one, love the 'I've had an honest, hard life' ghost bezel look - for sure a nicely faded ghost bezel is way more attractive to my eyes, than say, the flaked bezel of my previous c.861 Speedmaster 145.022-69 - so I took a gamble, emptied the wallet, bit the bullet, and bought the ghost bezel!

And while I was at it, I bought a correct, earlier 'pointy base' chrono hand to replace the later 'flat base' chrono hand of mine.

So when I finally put it all together....I was greatly relieved - my Speedy now looked pretty darn perfect!

It's by no means all original, but who cares!

It's mine, it ain't going anywhere, and it looks absolutely lovely (albeit in a Franken kinda way)!!!

The Big Triangle, ST166.024 SM300, from 1969

One of my greatest watch dilemmas - what's the most iconic vintage diving watch?

The Seamaster 300? Or the Submariner?

My choice is perpetually evolving - one day the Sub might prevail, another day the preference may edge towards the SM300.

Submariners are literally a dime a dozen (well, not quite, but I'm sure you know what I mean), so I decided to hunt for a rather famous variant of the Seamaster 300, the 'Big Triangle ' variant of the ST166.024 - first released in 1967.

Now these SM300s are frequently faked, so potential buyers will do well to exercise some careful due diligence - there's many online resources to help you sieve out all junk - this blog post by Arne Rasmussen is particularly comprehensive.

Also, as these were often actually used for their intended purpose (ie. diving), rather than the Submariner which were often more treasured and pampered, many of these vintage SM300s show evidence of having lived a hard life, fully exposed to the elements.

This ad showed up one afternoon just as I was heading off to work...coincidentally, it was a local sale, and I even knew the seller! Problem is - I really really had to leave for work, and I knew that if I hesitated, it would likely be gone in the next couple of minutes.

So I frantically contacted the seller, and thankfully he was nice enough to agree to hold it for me for a couple of hours. By the time I managed to find a few minutes away from work to get back to him, he had been inundated by an avalanche of offers, but to his credit, he held firm - he had given me a verbal promise, and he steadfastly kept to his word - what a gent!

So after cross checking a few minor details, the deal was done - thank you Jack!

This Big Triangle was by no means perfect, it did show it's age, and it most likely had a service (but all correct - down to the little dot on the Big Triangle and the 6 o'clock lume markers) dial; but it was honest, reasonably priced, and had a serial number dating to 1969 - the way I like my watches - wooohoooo!

In the flesh, it is indeed a handsome watch - tough, professional looking, without being excessively chunky or overbuilt.

I am very much a bracelet guy, but I found that I definitely preferred this watch on a leather strap.

What I couldn't accept, however, was the mismatch between the lume of the hands and the dial, but this was nothing that a quick visit to the renowned James Hyman couldn't fix!

So after the hands were relumed to match the dial - it's all much better - still not perfect mind you - I would prefer the lume and dial to show more patina, but no worries - that will develop over time! =)

Seiko 5 Speedtimer 6138-0010 'Yachtman' from 1970 - three of 'em!

Wow I can't believe it's been so many months since I last blogged!

I guess the harsh reality is that with alternative social media platforms readily available for one to share their thoughts and such to the wider world, blogging has become, sadly, passé!

No matter...better late than never right?

Anyways, let's not waste time cos I got a bunch of new watch acquisitions to plough though!!!

So although I love the historical achievement of the Seiko 6139 as possibly the first commercially available automatic chronograph, I intensely dislike the fact that I cannot wind the watch, and that I had to wear it on a daily basis to keep it wound.

I suppose it could have been Seiko's sly trick to 'force' the owners of these watches to constantly wear them, but hey, I'm a watch collector, damnit, and I've got more than one watch to wear!!!

So that got me looking at the Seiko 6138, a movement that came towards the end of 1969, a few months after the introduction of the 6139, but with one crucial feature (well, two, to be precise - it's also got 2 subdials instead of the solitary dial of the 6139) that sets it apart from the 6139 - the ability to wind the watch!

One of the earliest (and most popular) models of the vast 6138 lineup (See Jasui's awesome collection above) is the 'Yachtman', or 'UFO' as it is more widely known in the watch world.

These UFOs are not uncommon - a search on Ebay will reveal a million pieces - but most of these are for the international market - they're just simply labelled 'Seiko Automatic Chronograph'.

Since I like to keep things difficult for myself, and of course to keep within my collecting theme, I chose to hunt for the rarer JDM 'Seiko 5 Sports Speed-Timer', 'Proof' dial, 'Proof' caseback version.

When I was looking for 6139s, I used to come across these periodically, but had stupidly ignored them.

Then when I finally began hunting for them, they were nowhere to be found.

So this was the first one that showed up after some months - I hastily bought it despite the fact that it had the 'fatter' or 'blunt' arrow hands. Though correct, I preferred the variant with 'narrower' or 'pointy' arrow hands.

When it arrived, I had to replace the badly scratched crystal and the bracelet that was in terrible condition, but the rest of the watch was fine - the dial was in particularly good condition, and overall, this UFO from Oct 1970 was a wonderful watch - bright, colourful, and had great wrist presence!

So as with these things - the moment you give up and settle for a piece that is almost, but not quite perfect, a better piece will immediately show up.

Usually I wouldn't bite the bullet the second time, but I had to for this second one that came by, cos not only did it have the nicer and narrower arrow hands, but it also had the original Seiko 5 Speed-Timer bracelet, AND it was earlier - dating to March 1970 to be precise - and it had the necessary patina on the dial to proof it!

When it arrived, it had a unpolished case, which was a nice bonus, but internally it was a total train wreak - not only was it not functioning, it couldn't even be wound - the movement was all gummed up with gunk and other unmentionables!

But these 6138 movements did not earn a stellar reputation for being reliable work-horses for nothing - after a stint at my watchmaker, this little baby came back all cleaned up and ready to party with his younger twin and his 6139 cousins!!

And make no mistake - these are all JDM Proof Proof Seiko 5 Speed-Timers!

Addendum 8 July 2016:

So I unexpectedly came across another nice JDM Proof dial Proof back UFO recently, but what particularly piqued my interest is that it dated from Feb 1970 (one month earlier than my existing UFO), making it one of the earliest known Seiko 6138-0010s around! *** If anyone knows of any UFO/Yachtman dating to Jan 1970 or earlier, please contact me - I would be very interested to hear from you! ***

As an added bonus, it had a cleaner dial than mine, with the silver subdial free of the blemishes that mine had, plus it had been recently serviced and thus was good to go the moment it showed up - no visit to the watchmaker necessary....woohoo!!!!

In the flesh, these guys are dope with a capital D!!! Big, chunky, full of character and wrist presence. If you haven't tried one on your wrist, you owe it to yourself to do so!

Trust me, you will not regret it!

The first automatic Speedmaster - a MkIIIa ST176.002 'non-Professional' from 1972

I had once owned a Jan 1970 cal.861 pre-moon Speedmaster ST145.022, but traded it off because I didn't quite bond with it, and since then I've always wondered that my vintage watch collection could never be considered 'legit' without a Speedmaster, especially after acquiring a 1969 flightmaster 910 and a 1971/2 Seamaster 1000m 'Grand'.

But I didn't quite appreciate the severe black dial of the original 'Mk1' Speedmaster ST145.022, and while the Speedmaster MkII is indeed a 1969 watch, again, I never quite liked the tonneau shaped case of the ST145.014.

Next came the Speedmaster MkIII, but I had always assumed that being so tall, it was impractical and unwearable.

Till I saw and wore one in the flesh, in the famous Bangkok vintage watch shop 'Because I Like It', no less!

On my wrist, it was indeed tall - it'll never fit under a cuffed shirt, for example - but it oozed vintage class and 'space edge' charm, and the iridescent blue dial was just so alluring, so since I don't wear too many cuffed shirts anyways, I decided I had to get one for myself!

And why not? The Speedmaster MkIII ST 176.002 is Omega's first automatic Speedmaster, which fits my collecting theme of 'first automatic chronographs of 1969/early 70s' just about perfectly.

Additionally, like my flightmaster 910 and the SMP1000m, it too had the chunky 'Pilot line' case (chronicled nicely here) - too bulky for many people, but it's a style that I had a soft spot for, not least because I do like 'em big on my wrist!

The MkIII is a confusing Omega oddity - they came in no less than 3 variants - the 'spacey', tall MkIIIa variant described here, a 'Seamaster' styled MkIIIb variant, and a square dialled 'Jedi' MkIIIc variant - all lovingly detailed here in Chuck Maddox's classic essay. Even the MkIIIa alone came in 2 different dial variants, in 3 colours each, and with 4 bezel options! 

Of course, being me, I had to make things difficult for myself by wanting a MkIIIa with the earlier dial, without the 'Professional' text.

Most of these early 'non Professional' dials were black, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this dark metallic blue 'non Professional' variant from a Japanese site.

What's more, even though MkIIIa came in 4 bezel options, most other MkIIIs I've encountered had the Tachymetric bezel - this Japanese one was different because it had a Pulsations bezel - perfect for my line of work! =P

It was still a risky punt though - from the photos, the crystal was obviously badly scratched up, the case was worn, the bezel looked to be a different colour from the dial, and there was no service history, but it was not overpriced, and it did have that rare Omega 1159/155 bracelet.

Thankfully, when it arrived, the movement was clean and everything functioned perfectly.

A trip to the watchmaker to change the crystal, and it came back stunning - even the colour mismatched bezel could not distract from the brilliant, spotless, perfect Azure blue dial!

I'm a happy camper, I am!!!

So finally now, a 'legit' vintage watch collection? =)

Seamaster Professional 1000m ST166.093 from 1971/2!

This post is a long time coming!!!

I purchased this watch in early 2014, but it took ELEVEN months (and FOUR watch makers no less!) to pry the watch open for a complete servicing.

I had always wanted a proper, rugged vintage dive watch, but didn't appreciate the clunky look of the king of all vintage dive watches, the Ploprof 600m, so I'd been eyeing it's cousin, the Seamaster Professional 1000m 'Grand' with the left sided 'destro' crown, for some time.

These SMP1000s are exceedingly rare - this post suggests that only 150 pieces were originally made. Fifty were ordered by Prince Rainier III of Monaco (he apparently gave the very first one made personally to Jacque Cousteau!), with Omega manufacturing another 100 pieces for public sale.

Omega must have made a larger batch of these cases, cos in recent years, someone must have found a stash of these NOS cases, resulting in a trickle of pristinely NOS SMP1000s making their way to Ebay and various other online sites, thus diluting the value of the rare originals.

So this one's provenance is dicey - it comes from a known seller of these NOS, presumably reassembled, 166.093s, but this one was unusual in that it had an a worn early variant bezel (with the numbers going very close the the edge of the bezel), worn early variant dial (with a second, inner circle of 5 minute markers - absent in the later dial variant) in fairly good condition, in a newer case with the sunburst finish (rather than the original radial brushed finish) - see this discussion of early vs. new 166.093s.

The movement is the earlier cal.1002, and the serial number 3311xxx suggest a production date of 1971.

This tallies with the Vintage Omega Database and this post by Steve Waddington - the 166.093 seems to be first released in 1971/2 with the cal.1002 movement, and only in 1973 did it feature the newer cal.1012 movement.

So what I have is a 166.093 with the earlier cal.1002 movement, worn earlier dial, worn bezel, with possibly new hands and case.

If someone was reassembling this watch from parts, surely it'd make more sense to fit in the newer cal.1012 movement and a new dial and bezel, which leads me to cautiously suspect that I may have ownership of one of the original SMP1000m 166.093s, which somewhere along the way received a replacement case and hands, perhaps as part of a service, but even then, could the dial on mine possibly be in such good condition after so many years?
See this wonderful Nov 2014 review of an original SMP1000m and note how badly the dial has corroded over time - in contrast, mine is pristine! =(
I want the dial on mine to be in a poorer condition, dammit!!!

 

In any case (pun intended), it doesn't really matter - original or reassembled, this one's mine now and it ain't goin' nowhere!

In the flesh, it is a stunning watch - heavy, rugged and manly. I didn't like the Isofrane strap that came with it, nor the period correct mesh bracelet, so I fitted on it a waterproof leather strap - sacrilegious you may say, but hey, I'm never going to go diving with it!

Having said that, it certainly looks professional enough to go down to 1000m underwater (400m more than the Ploprof 600, and five times deeper than the Submariner, if I may casually add!), yet looks far less clunky than the Ploprof, and it sure as hell is a shitload less common than the dime-a-dozen Submariner! =P

*Update* I've since swopped out the waterproof leather strap for a chunky generic brushed SS bracelet that completes the hefty, macho tool watch 'look' better!

**Update #2** Although I liked the chunky generic bracelet quite a bit, it always bugged me that it was not an original Omega bracelet. So since I very much liked the Omega 1159 bracelet as seen in the flightmaster and Speedmaster MkIII, I thought...why not one of these on the Grand?
So after a long search, I finally found an over-polished one.
Does it work on the SMP1000m?
Well....it's still not perfect, but it does give it a slightly sporty edge!
Have a look at these 'wet' pics and decide for yourself!