Pogue’s lesser-loved cousins

I’ve written a fair amount about the Seiko “Pogue” aka 6139-600x series of watches. That they came out in 1969 and were amongst the earliest automatic chronographs was remarkable, though the 6139-6010 (aka Bruce Lee) came out a few months earlier, and the 6139 family grew to a surprisingly diverse group of differing watch designs showing some radical various dial finishes and colours. While there’s always the maxim that someone will take to them, the further they move away from the Pogue/Bruce Lee design style, the less desirable they tend to be for collectors.

That said, I’ve somewhat inadvertently picked up a few on my travels. Here one example …

It’s a 6139-7060 JDM-only model, as indicated by the 5-Sports Speed-Timer nomenclature, and as it turned out, it had a pretty rare and special bracelet, with the notches on the centre links and 5-Sports on the clasp.

The dial and hands are a bit faded (at least when compared with other examples found online, like this specimen posted by @amateurwatchfettler). There are some other pics of green (and variants like the “Teal Sunrise” one) on an old thread on WristSushi.

Despite this one being auctioned as “appears to run and function”, it wasn’t a very healthy watch and with the beaten up mineral glass crystal too, I decided to sent it off for a service, and not too soon – the 21-jewel JDM 6139B movement was all a bit rough and ready, however it came out looking and running pretty well.

The light playing off the green dial really makes this watch look different depending on the ambiance – outdoors with a gree car as backdrop…

… or in a pub on a rainy day…

With all that said, I never really loved the green dial; maybe if the lettering and hands had been a bit more vibrant, I’d have persevered. I sold it on eBay, though for quite a bit less than I thought it was worth. Them’s the brakes, kiddos.