Seiko’s 5 Sport series – like this full-serviced steel-grey 1971 Seiko 6106-7480 Actus automatic here, a gift to a loyal employee of the Japan-based Odakyu Electric Railway – were popular and quite reminiscent of the late 1960’s and 1970’s chic.
 
Why do we label this Seiko 6106, “Odakyu Electric Railway” (OER)? 
 
Per the Kanji Japanese inscriptions on the watch case back, the Japan-based company awarded this watch to a loyal employee in 1971.  The Odakyu Electric Railway Company, Ltd. (小田急電鉄株式会社, Odakyū Dentetsu kabushiki gaisha) is a major railway company based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its “Romancecar” series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone.  Founded in early 1927, as of 2022 the company employed nearly 4,000 with revenue of nearly $1 billion.
 
After the 1950s, and due to rapid Japanese economic growth and an explosive increase of population along with its lines, commuter passengers complained regularly of crowded trains every morning and attendant delays.  
 
OER’s Romancecar (ロマンスカー, Romansukā) is the company’s name for its express luxury tourist services to mountain resorts (like Mount Fuji) and beaches.  When the company started the service in 1957, it broke the world speed record (145 km/h or 90 mph) for a narrow-gauge train.  The name comes from romance seats, two-person seats without separating armrests when one-person seats were a norm - an attempt to alleviate the chronic overcrowding of the rail lines.
 
As of early 2018, the company had expanded its lines to double- or quadruple-tracked within the Tokyo Metropolis, a project first decided in December 1964 but due to land acquisition complicated by NIMBY sentiment complex and expensive workarounds were constructed and finished, taking a full half century.
 
Some Romancecars (a Japanese portmanteau for "loveseat") are equipped with standard seats featuring armrest – while other railroad companies use similar terms for their special accommodation passenger cars, OER holds the trademark for the term.
 
Seiko debuted its 6106 dive watches in 1967 as its first “Sport Diver.”   Notably, the 6106 was Seiko's first dive watch...sport diver, that is.  The Seiko 6106 series - just like its 6119 little brother subsequent - was a line of 70-meter diver watches; the line was aimed at “light” water sports that gained in widespread popularity during the late 1960’s and 1970’s (hence the 70-meter dive rating); however, these dive watches did not feature diving bezels.
 
On to one of the best features of the 6106 – the dial.  These dials, regardless of color, sparkle in the light and were finished better than many of the Swiss watches from the same period.  Couple this with very little writing on the dial and raised applied hour indices, and you have a dial that’s purposeful and sparse.  
 
Even today, Seiko's 5 Sports line continues to win plaudits - as noted recently in GQ Magazine, "Regardless of where a budding collector might be headed, the first question they all have is the same: Where do I start?"
 
"My answer is the Seiko 5 Sports line.  These watches check all the boxes: They’re affordable, distinctive, and, despite costing a fraction of what most mechanical sports watches do, are built to last.  The famed Japanese watchmaker launched the 5 Sports line in 1968, and revamped it in 2019 when it released watches...at prices that seem to be missing a zero."
 
"For the aspiring collector who has never owned a watch, the attractive price point of a 5 Sports may be all the convincing one needs.  And for the burgeoning horologist who already owns a timepiece or two, these watches come with the history, the quality, the sophisticated design, and the functionality that make them every bit as essential as any Swiss brand to a well-rounded collection."
 
This 6106 comes on a leather-backed canvas strap, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, and spring bar tool.