Been thinking about what my next watch should be. I saw a nice Bulova hand wind in an antique store, for only $45! It was decent looking, but the bracelet was awful (twist-o-flex), also known as a hair grabber. It was a little small, but very thin. It was a hand wind, only, with no claim of jewel count on the face. Small seconds dial, which is pretty neat. I still can’t find a picture of one. Personally, I kinda of like automatics, you don’t have to really think about winding them. With that in mind, I think I found a vintage one I like:
It is a Seiko 6139 based chronograph, ‘white helmet’ design.
It meets several criteria I really want in my next watch:
- White or cream faced.
- It’s a Seiko.
- It is a vintage, but not too old, late 70’s.
- It has day and date.
- It is an automatic.
- It is a chronograph WITH a Tachymeter scale. (I really like Tachymeters)
- It is not too big, about 40mm diameter.
- I think it looks cool.
- Prices are reasonable, but really good examples are not the easiest to find. Price seems to be in the $100 to $150 range for clean examples.
This would be my first foray into a vintage watch, but considering a NEW Seiko mechanical chronograph is upwards of $2000, this is a steal. The cheapest Swiss chronos are usually over $1,000. The other alternative is Russian (Poljot) chronographs as well. Not sure which way to go, but I think I like the thought of a vintage watch.
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