In 1969 three camps raced to sell the first automatic chronograph. Zenith announced its El Primero in January. The Swiss Chronomatic group showed its Caliber 11 soon after. Seiko said very little and simply started selling one. Production of the 6139 began at Suwa Seikosha in October 1968, Japanese sales started in May 1969 and exports followed that August. Seiko now calls the 5 Sports Speed-Timer the world's first commercially available automatic chronograph, and collectors have spent decades arguing about it.
The engineer, Toshihiko Ohki, built the 6139 on the existing caliber 61. He gave it a column wheel and the first vertical clutch used in a chronograph, which starts the chronograph cleanly without the hand jumping. He also kept quickset for both the day and the date. The one thing he left out was hand-winding, because Seiko trusted its Magic Lever automatic winding.
The 6139
The 6139 reads almost like a three-hand watch. There's no running seconds hand, just a central chronograph hand and one 30-minute register at 6 o'clock, with the day and date at 3. Turning the crown rotates an inner bezel, which many owners line up with the hour hand to time longer events. Two versions exist. The 6139A was made until mid-1971, and the redesigned 6139B followed with chronograph parts that don't swap between the two. Japanese 6139-6000 models had 21 jewels. Most other markets got 17. Production ran until 1978.
In Japan these were sold as the Speed-Timer, with a red Speed-Timer logo under the Seiko name. Elsewhere the dial text differs by market, which turns out to matter a great deal.
The Pogue
NASA astronaut William Pogue bought a yellow-dialed 6139 from the exchange at Ellington Air Force Base in 1972 and trained with it for months. When he flew on Skylab 4, from November 16, 1973 to February 8, 1974, he took it along in his pocket without official approval and wore it beside his issued Speedmaster. He used the inner bezel to time engine burns. Nobody outside the mission knew until watch enthusiast David Bruno wrote to him in 2006. It later emerged that commander Gerald Carr had flown his own Movado automatic chronograph on the same mission, so the Seiko shares the title of first automatic chronograph in space.
Sellers call any yellow 6139 a Pogue, but Beyond the Dial and Plus9Time both conclude that his watch was a 6139-6005, the North American model. Its dial reads WATER 70m RESIST at 9 o'clock and only AUTOMATIC under the Seiko logo, with 17J printed above the Suwa mark. The 6139-6002 is the same 600 case sold in the rest of the world, with chronograph wording under the logo and no jewel count. Both are good watches. Just know which one a listing is selling. The sources disagree slightly on how long the 6005 was made, so date a dial by its text instead. Beyond the Dial gives WATER 70m PROOF from 1969 to mid-1970, WATER 70m RESIST from mid-1970 to late 1972, and no water text after that.
Collectors also chase the blue-dialed 6139-6002, and the Aussie Pogue, a 6002 that Hong Kong importer Thong-Sa sold with a black inner bezel and a Stelux bracelet.
The 6138
The 6138 followed in 1970 and is the more capable movement. It adds a second register that counts up to 12 hours, it hand-winds, and it keeps the column wheel, vertical clutch and quickset day and date. It has 21 jewels and runs at 21,600. Beyond the Dial puts most 6138 cases between 40 and 44 mm across and 14 to 16 mm thick, so they wear big for vintage watches.
Seiko put the 6138 in a lot of cases, and many picked up nicknames.
- Bullhead. The 6138-0040 arrived around 1973 with its crown and pushers on top of the case. It came with a black dial with blue accents or a brown and gold one, measures about 44 by 45 mm, and was sold on a flexible fishbone bracelet. Its tall case means the tachymeter bezel is nearly always dented.
- Panda. The 6138-8020 has a 40 mm case and a 12 and 6 register layout, and its white-and-black version is one of the most collected 6138s. Fratello warns that it's rife with fakes and frankens. A Baby Panda, the 6138-8000, has smaller registers and is scarce.
- John Player Special. The John Player Special is the black and gold 6138-8039, a 40 mm, 14 mm thick barrel case from mid-1976 onward, with gold registers that recall the Lotus Formula 1 livery. Seiko and Lotus had no official tie, and the name came from collectors. Some sellers list it as a 6138-8020, which is the Panda's case number, so read the case back.
- UFO and Jumbo. The 6138-001X and 6138-300X. Beyond the Dial notes that Jumbos with aftermarket dials are everywhere.
What to check
- Match the case back to the dial. Ask for a clear photo of the case back. The caliber and case code should fit the dial in front of you, one register for a 6139 and two for a 6138. The serial number dates the case. The first digit is the last digit of the year and the second is the month, with 1 to 9 for January to September, then 0 for October and N and D for November and December. Pogue's own watch, serial 190945, was cased in September 1971.
- Read the dial text. The water rating wording, the AUTOMATIC or chronograph text and the jewel count should agree with the case code and the date. A 1977 case with a WATER 70m PROOF dial has a problem. Study the fonts against a known original, because aftermarket dials are common. Original dials carry the Suwa logo.
- Compare the lume. Original hand and dial lume age together, from white to pale grey. Bright, fresh lume on the hands over a grey dial, or the reverse, means something was replaced.
- Check the hands. On a yellow 6139 the chronograph seconds hand and the teardrop minute register hand should match in red. An orange one usually came from a blue-dial watch. Early two-part sweep hands are rare, because Seiko swapped them for one-piece hands during service.
- Ask for a chronograph video. You want to see start, stop and reset, with every hand snapping back to zero. A chronograph hand that stutters or falls behind can mean a worn clutch wheel, and good spares are getting hard to find.
- Ask about service. The 6139 barrel arbor wears its holes oval over the years, which hurts timekeeping. Opened cases often lose their pusher springs and seals, so don't count on any water resistance until a watchmaker has pressure tested it.
The bezels tell their own story. The yellow inner bezel fades toward white in sunlight, and the printing can lift. On the 6139-600X outer tachymeter, a white block at the 60 mark only appears after mid-1976. Those 6139s came on steel bracelets with a 19 mm lug width.
A 6139 or 6138 with sticky pushers and a tired bracelet can still be a fine watch. One built from three donors usually isn't. Our guide to spotting a redialed or franken Seiko goes deeper on dials and parts. If you want a vintage Seiko chronograph you can wear without worry, the quartz 7A28 from the 1980s is all metal and can be serviced. For how these calibers compare with the rest of the catalog, see Seiko movements explained.
