The Seiko 6139 automatic chronograph – a historical movement in its own right, like this full-serviced and legitimately rare 1971 Seiko 6139-6002 "Silver Surfer" automatic chronograph here – was the world's first automatic chronograph, beating out the likes of Zenith’s El Primero and Heuer’s Calibre 11.
Where did the Silver Surfer nickname come from? None other than actor Daniel Dae Kim, no stranger to the watch world, given his appearance on Hodinkee's "Talking Watches" and in the film, "Time Machines: An Analog Obsession," where he opens with, “I don’t know if I would call what I have an addiction, but maybe that’s the first sign of an addiction, that I can deny I’m addicted."
Kim - a good friend of small businesses, like ourselves - owns an excellent full-box set example of the Seiko 6139 Silver Surfer; we know this because we tracked it down for him! Kim coined the nickname on our Instagram account and it stuck - no more "Silver Pogue" nonsense, as the Silver Surfer deserves to stand on it's own.
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 at the same time, beating the Swiss at their own game – the Seiko Ref. 6139.
During the early months of 1969, Seiko put the final touches on its revolutionary 6139 chronograph - in fact, the Japanese company first began putting the 6139 in automatic chronographs as early as January of the same year.
Seiko published its first advertisement for their new automatic 6139 chronograph in February 1969, easily beating the Swiss - however, the company was concentrating on the release of the world's first quartz watch, the Astron, which would completely disrupt the watch world as it was known at the time (again, much to the chagrin of the Swiss watch industry, we're certain). We possess 6139 dials dating back to November 1968, indicating Seiko beat all other rivals to produce the world's first automatic chronograph. Period.
The watch world recognized this recently, with an early model Seiko 6139 - January 1969, well before the Swiss - garnering nearly $20k at auction.
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. The movement features a single register chronograph allowing time to be measured in increments of 30 minutes.
This Seiko Silver Surfer comes on a high-quality Uncle Straps stainless-steel "Presidential" bracelet, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, and springbar tool.
