Hands up all you vintage Seiko dive watch enthusiasts who remember this one? I certainly do, when it appeared on ebay last year I was inundated with requests for information for the duration of the auction! Some people were a bit coy and showed me a few photographs saying they “had the chance of purchasing a 6159 diver that was in pieces”, others were more candid and said “this 6159’s on ebay, what do you think?” Looking at the picture below it actually looks quite reasonable, probably in need of a relume you may think.
Author: thewatchbloke
Heuer 266.006-1 quartz with Dubios-Depraz 2000 chronograph module
This Heuer 2000 quartz chronograph came in recently for a service, the watch ran with the chronograph running but spluttered to a halt with it disengaged. This particular Heuer is a modular chronograph meaning the movement powers a separate chronograph module fixed on where the dial would usually sit. Modular chrono’s are usually easily identifiable by the crown being below the line of the pushers. This one is powered by a slightly modified ETA 555.282 quartz movement and the chronograph module is a Dubios-Depraz 2000, these find their way into quite a number of manufacturers chronograph models.
Seiko 6138-0010 chronograph
This very early Seiko 6138-0010 “UFO” came in recently for some attention. The owner had bought it in 1971 when he was working as a race mechanic for the Tyrell formula one team when they were in Japan that season. He saw it on the wrist of a Japanese mechanic working for one of the other teams and fell in love with it so a deal was struck. It was worn continuously throughout his career and he eventually ended up running his own engineering firm that produced parts for race teams. The watch was regularly serviced until a number of years ago when he was told it wasn’t possible to get the parts anymore. He took it to a couple of watchmakers in the intervening years to try and get it resurrected but ultimately all that happened was it was returned not working with some parts missing! Having sold his company and taking life a little easier his thoughts came back to getting the watch repaired and this is where I come in.
The watch itself is a Japanese domestic market version of a model that has since been given the nickname “UFO”, the 0010 designation shows it was the Japanese “Speedtimer Sports” version. An early example like this is powered by the calibre 6138a, a hand windable automatic, 21 jewels, 21,600bph, twin register, column wheel with vertical clutch chronograph movement. The later models were powered by the calibre 6138b movement and there are a few subtle differences that I’ll point out later in the article.
Lorenz Lemania 5100 Chronograph
This Lorenz chronograph was a recent arrival in need of it’s worn winding pinion sorting out along with a movement service. Powered by the Lemania calibre 5100 movement it’s a handsome looking watch. I’ve written about the calibre 5100 before so I’ll skip the history and just say it’s a very robust movement and because of this was used to power a lot of military (and military influenced) watches.
Seiko 6105-8110
I thought I’d feature this 6105-8110 as it’s an example that actually worked for a living as opposed to being taken for an occasional swim or snorkel! It was bought in the 1970’s by the current owners father who was a professional deep sea diver back in those days. He wore it throughout his diving career and when he’d finished the watch dropped off the radar only to reappear in 2015 when his son was clearing out the garage. He contacted me to see if it could be resurrected as a reminder of his late dad. As you can see it’s had a hard life, the insert has faded to a lovely grey colour but that’s about the only positive I could see! The lume was grotty, the hands were ominously stained with rust and the seconds hand was floating about under the crystal. The movement couldn’t be turned by the crown, everything was locked up.
Sinn 556a
This Sinn 556a came in recently just needing a movement service, the reason I’ve featured it is because a) I love Sinn watches and b) it’s one of Sinn’s entry level watches. However, despite it being ‘entry level’ the design and finish of this watch is phenomenal. Sinn are one of the few ‘smaller’ brands to produce their own cases and it shows in the beautifully machined and executed example on this 556a. It has a satinised finish which comes somewhere between polished and brushed giving it a clean appearance.
Seiko Alpinist 85899
An interesting job that came in recently was this Seiko Alpinist from July 1964. The Alpinist models were a Japanese domestic market range of watches which were introduced in 1961 and ran to 1964. The line was inspired by the Japanese concept of Yamaotoko, this term roughly translates as ‘Mountain man’, and describes the Japanese tradition of amateur mountaineering whereby people climbed Japan’s mountains during weekends and holidays. This example is powered by Seikos calibre 851, a 17 jewel, 18,000bph manual wind movement. It arrived needing an overhaul but interestingly the owner had a NOS case, dial and handset for it.
Seiko 6159-7001
This classic 6159-7001 came in recently for a movement service, a new crystal, a relume of the dial and hands and investigation of the non clicking bezel. I’ve written about these beautiful watches a few times before, they were actually Seikos first ‘Professional’ series divers watch (a line which continues to today) developed in conjunction with real divers who listed the features they’d find most useful in a dive watch. When released they were more expensive than many of the Swiss brands (including Rolex) and as such tended to be bought and used by professional divers for their intended purpose as a hard working tool watch. Remember these were the days before big chunky watches became fashionable, the average dress watches at the time were 35mm and a lot slimmer 🙂
As can be seen on this one the lume on the minute and seconds hand had dropped out and had been replaced with a non matching compound, the remaining original lume was quite grubby but the gilt frames had survived remarkably well.
Heuer 980.023
An interesting refurbishment that came in near the end of last year was this Heuer 980.023 quartz powered 1,000m divers watch. The owner remembers buying it sometime in the early eighties and did many dives with it, he also said it holds a special place in his life story and as such he would like it running again. The watch has been used hard for its intended purpose and the owner didn’t want to take any of it’s history away by reluming or replacing the dial, he wanted it to be the watch he remembered wearing on his dives. Similarly we decided to replace the crystal but apart from a thorough clean of the case not to do anything further.
Omega Seamaster Chronograph 145.016-68
One of the more unusual jobs that came in at the end of last year was this Omega Seamaster chronograph. The Seamaster chronograph is a lot less common than the Speedmaster chronograph or moonwatch as it’s become known. This example is from 1968 and as such would be classified as a pre moon watch if it were a Speedmaster. It’s powered by Omegas calibre 861, cam operated, three register chronograph movement. The watch itself is in lovely condition and just needed a service carried out to get it functioning as it should do.
The Watch Bloke 