Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Wearing a white helmet: Seiko 6139-7101

Seiko White Helmet 6139-7101

This is a vintage 1970's-90's era white motorcycle helmet. No.... No... No.... not this type of helmet. But  the famous Seiko Helmet white dial.


Here like the one below! Nick named Seiko Helmet because of its case shape and design. If you compare the stainless steel case of Seiko 6139-7101 with the shape of the motorcycle helmet, there are some resemblances. The case is measuring at 40mm without the crown. Actually the stainless steel crown seem to be concealed inside the case. Only the two pushers protruding out from the case. 6139-7101 has superbly done satin-polish upper ring surrounding the crystal while the rest of the case is in matte-finish. 


After the mineral glass this watch has an inner white chapter ring with the tachymeter indices. The snow white dial has a subdial at above 6 o'clock position. I have seen Seiko 6139-7100 and 6139-7101 with yellow, and red chronograph hand and sub-registering hand. My one all the hands are in black colour and I think it looks fantastic this way. 


This watch has a quickset day-date function using the crown to set. 


The unorthodox case design is beautiful from some angles. It is well constructed and with a solid feel. 


When I got this watch, it is still with the original stainless steel bracelet from the factory. 


The fold over clasp has the raised Seiko wording. 



From the serial number, the watch was made in February 1979. The production year for 6139 series was from 1969-1979. Hence, this may be the last few batches of Seiko Chronograph 6139 series. Some addressed 6139 to be the World's first automatic chronograph movement. This watch is using the 6139B movement. It is a 17 jewels automatic single register chronograph movement, It has no second hand. 




Here is my collection on Seiko Chronograph that I had posted:
More latest model

More to come in near future........

6 comments:

  1. Hi, I just found one of these in my father's house. How can I know the date of manufacture? is there a link for this? This is slightly different because is black but it has the same bracelet (same bracelet serial). The serial of the watch is 784202.

    Nice pics!

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  2. Rafael Pernia: Good day... sorry for the late reply.... first u must know the approximate time frame for that specific model before u can use its serial number to track the manufacturing date.The first number is the year in that decade. The second number is the month... 1 to 9 denotes months of January to September. "0", "N" and"D" denotes October, November and December respectively. The last four digits represent the running number of production. 784202 suggested that your watch dated back to August 1977. Hopefully this maybe helpful.

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  3. I have one with serial number 841915. Can you provide the manufacturing date? I would also like to know how much worth a watch like this.
    Thank you in advance!

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    Replies
    1. Paulo Rocha: the serial number stated that it was out of factory in April 1978. When it comes to the value of a vintage watch.... it really depends on a lot of factors....all original parts? any aftermarket parts? and physical and mechanical condition of the watch? etc. Another thing with vintage watch is the sentimental value...... On average a fully functioning white helmet on ebay or forum would range between USD250 to perhaps 350 or more. Hope this would help you in a way.

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  4. Thank you very much!! I figure out that my watch is from december 1977 !!
    I got it serviced and polished and now looks amazing. Thanks for answering...

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  5. great watch en Greater comments
    I've just got one myself
    Anyone interested in it ? 250 euro

    ReplyDelete