The 6105-8110 is one of Seikos most well known vintage dive watches. This model was worn on Martin Sheens wrist in the 1979 film Apocalypse now when he played the role of Captain Willard during the Vietnam conflict. The reason behind it being chosen for the film was because during the conflict Seiko watches were sold in the forces Post Exchanges (PX’s) and were bought by a lot of servicemen with wages to spend whilst on their tour, it was the first exposure for a lot of Americans to Japanese products.

With such heritage they are very collectible and it’s always nice to see one come in, this particular example is in excellent condition and was just in need of a movement service.

It dates from October 1974 and even the underside of the case is remarkably well kept.

A quick peep at the movement shows that’s lovely and clean too.

In fact deeper into the stripdown the only signs of age are some dried out lubricants here and there.

With the movement fully stripped it was then cleaned and inspected.

Needless to say nothing untoward was found during the inspection, so the next job was reassembly and lubrication starting with the mainspring.

In this shot the going train is ready for the bridge to be fitted, you can see the brass hacking lever in this shot. The earlier 6105a movements that were used in the 6105-8000 and a few of the earlier 6105-8110’s didn’t have the hacking feature, it was added with the “b” designation. Both the “a” and “b” versions were non hand winding, 17 jewel, 21,600bph calibres.

The motion work completed and ticking away nicely.

The calendar side was then reassembled.

And the dial was then fitted. This has to be one of the best preserved 6105 dials I’ve seen, absolutely stunning.

One question I’m often asked about these dials is “Do you think my dial has been relumed, I can see overspill on some of the plots?” Well if you look at the close up below you can see a plot with some overspill on one the of the frames, a lot of original dials I see have this and to me it reinforces the originality! It’s very difficult to replicate that type of anomaly accurately, to do so you’d need the same consistency and granularity of lume that the factory used.

The handset was refitted.

And the movement recased.

What a cracking original example, I’m quite envious!