The Seiko 6139 automatic chronograph – a historical movement in its own right, like this full serviced 1970 Seiko 6139-7010 SpeedTimer "Iceberg Military" with Arabic dial here, only sold in Japan – was one the world's automatic chronograph, beating out the likes of Zenith’s El Primero and Heuer’s Calibre 11.
The best thing about these 6139-7010's? They feature atypical Arabic numerals counting the hours - Seiko used this designed sparingly during this era, and it gives the watch a great military stance.
And it appeared the Japanese military, in the form of the Japanese Defense Forces, agreed - these were issued to the JDF navy (JMSDF) and air (JASDF) forces; issued examples are exceedingly rare, and feature military insignia on the case back and JDF in Kanji Japanese. A 1981 Japanese TV special, "The Last Show," highlighted JASDF pilots and their U.S.-provided F-86 Sabre and Mitsubishi T-2 fighter jets - and on the wrist? The Seiko 6139-701x, naturally.
Back in the 1970’s, Heuer and Zenith had taken hold of the entire sports watch industry by racing to become the first to produce an automatic chronograph. It has been widely debated who won, but in the background of this skirmish, Seiko quietly created one theirs at the same time, beating the Swiss at their own game – the Seiko 6139.
The watch world recognized this recently, with an early model Seiko 6139 - January 1969, well before the Swiss - garnering nearly $20k at auction.
We all know Omega was the first watch on the moon, mostly because Omega won’t let us forget (ever). However, the first automatic chronograph in space was the more humble and less publicized Seiko 6139, named after US astronaut Colonel William Pogue, who wore his on the 1973 Skylab 4 mission-despite not obtaining NASA authorization–to time shuttle engine burns due to his familiarity with the watch and trust in its capabilities…trusting the lives of himself and fellow astronauts to the reliability of his Seiko.
The 6139 was the first chronograph to have a vertical clutch, a feature considered to be one of the hallmarks of a superior automatic chronograph movement. The 6139 features an automatic column wheel timing control and an integrated chronograph, which means the entire movement was designed and built to be a chronograph, vice being an automatic movement with a mere timing module. it also features a single register chronograph, allowing time to be measured in increments of 30 minutes.
This Iceberg comes with a stainless-steel SpeedTimer bracelet, nylon strap, hard plastic travel case, and springbar tool.
