Seiko - 1971 Resist 6139-6002 'Yellow Pogue'

WHAT WE LOVE:

The Seiko 6139-6002 holds a provenance that neither Rolex nor Omega nor any Swiss manufacture can claim: it was the first automatic chronograph watch worn in space. In November 1973, NASA astronaut Colonel William R. Pogue wore a yellow-dialled 6139-6002 during the Skylab 4 mission — a fact that went largely unnoticed for decades and was finally confirmed in 2007 when a watch enthusiast identified the reference on Pogue's wrist in mission photographs. The certification of an automatic chronograph — a mass-produced consumer watch retailing for a fraction of the Speedmaster's price — as the first of its type to operate in orbital weightlessness is a historical detail that has only grown in significance as collectors have come to understand what it means.

The yellow dial is the defining visual element of the 6139-6002 and the specific configuration that earned the watch its "Yellow Pogue" name. Against the vivid yellow ground the applied white square luminous hour markers and the broad hands read with the kind of immediate legibility that military specification watches demand. The "Pepsi" bi-colour rotating bezel — red and blue aluminium insert, identical in colour assignment to the Rolex GMT-Master Pepsi of the same era — was the standard configuration for the 6002 North American market reference. The inner rotating elapsed-time bezel scale, operated by the crown rather than a pusher, and the fixed outer tachymeter scale give the watch three separate scales readable simultaneously. The Calibre 6139 column-wheel automatic chronograph movement was one of the world's first automatic chronographs when it launched in 1969 — contemporaneous with the Chronomatic/Calibre 11 and sharing the historical priority designation that watch historians continue to debate. The barrel case with its stepped structure, the day-date window in its characteristic double aperture, and the two pushers at 2 and 4 o'clock are all original to this reference.

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Seiko Calibre 6139 — 17-jewel column-wheel automatic chronograph, 21,600 vph, day-date quickset, 30-minute chronograph counter at 6 o'clock, approximately 45-hour power reserve. Hardlex mineral crystal. A watch of this age benefits from confirmed running condition before extended daily wear. Has been relumed.

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