I’ve had a number of these 6139-6002’s in recently, in fact last month I did a little piece on the history of them here. I thought I’d feature the latest one that’s been on the bench to illustrate the transformation a simple thing like a replacement crystal can bring to the watch. It came in for a new crystal and a full movement service. Under that crystal the dial and handset look to be in great shape with little damage and bright white lume, and thankfully no broken crown on this one.
Seiko
Seiko 6218-8971
At the time of its introduction in 1964 the 6218-8971 Seikomatic Weekdater was the top of the range flagship of the Seiko automatic lineup. The 1964 Weekdater was the immediate, automatic equivalent of the 1964 Grand Seiko hand-wind, before the appearance of the first automatic GS in 1967. The 6218 movement’s an automatic, 35 jewel, 18,000bph, hacking calibre based on the 62xx platform that powered everything from Seikos World Time and their first dive watch, through to the Grand Seikos of the era. Both the 57GS/43999, 6218 and 62GS have 35 or 39 jewel movements and are all examples where jewels were added to stop what has been translated from the Japanese as the ‘shake fall problem’ with the datewheel. The 1965 example featured below came in for a movement service and is in lovely original condition.
Seiko 6309-7040
Not a lot more can be said about Seikos 6309-7040 to be honest! There’s a wealth of information out there but a quick history of the watch is that it was the replacement for the previous asymmetric 6105-8110 diver, and the key changes were the turtle type case design with a proper screw down crown, a fully printed dial that did away with the framed lume wells and a completely redesigned automatic, 17 jewel, 21,600bph non hacking movement. There’s a famous image of Mick Jagger wearing his in the seventies so he’s obviously a man of good taste ,not withstanding the fact he has supermodel Jerry Hall on his arm!
Seiko 7548-7000
The 7548-7000 was Seikos first attempt at a quartz powered dive watch and was adapted from the 6309 platform. As such it’s a tremendously over engineered movement and consequently one of my favourite quartz movements. The 7548-7000 was destined for the Japanese domestic market and sports an English/Kanji day wheel. Supergroup Queens lead guitarist Brian May has famously worn a similar 7548-7010 for many years, a very similar model apart from a screw down crystal retaining ring instead of a press fit one.
Seiko MM300
Seikos Marinemaster Automatic Professional 300 SBDX001 is the grandchild of the original 300m professional Seiko diver, the 6159-7001 that debuted in 1968, and it’s looks are strikingly similar to it’s historic ancestor. You can see the MM300 that’s the subject of this post next to my 6159-7001 below.
Seiko 6217-8001
I’ve previously featured a 62mas where I said it’s one of my favourite vintage Japanese dive watches, so there’s no apologies for featuring another. This example came in for a movement service and was in pretty good shape considering the age. The hands are missing because it came to me via James Hyman who’d already relumed the dial and handset, there’s no point putting the hands back on if they’re coming straight off again!
Seiko 6105-8110
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.
Seiko 6309-729B
Seikos 6309 divers watch comes in a number of variants ranging from the classic cushion cased 6309-7040/9 and the slim cased 6309-7290, to the blue and red bezel of the slim cased 6309-729A. The scarcest of all these is the slim cased orange dialled 6309-729B.
Seiko SHC059P “Sawtooth”
The Seiko SHC059P is more commonly known by it’s sawtooth nickname, so called because the bezels edge resembles a circular saw blade. I recently had one come in just needing a new battery so I removed the back to fit a new one. The existing battery was quite dusty with a big ball of fluff hanging off it, it must have been found down the back of the sofa and fitted!
Seiko 4006-7000 Bell-Matic
Seikos Bell-Matics are fun watches and have quite a following, there are a huge variety of models to choose from and prices are still sensible at the moment. The example featured below came in for a movement service and the first thing you can spot is there’s obviously a problem with the day changeover as the wheel is stuck between two days. This is usually caused by a broken or bent day jumper, the component that locks the wheel into the correct position when it rolls over to the next day.
The Watch Bloke 