Seiko 6139-6020 "Pulsations" Revisited

[HiBeat]

We all know and many of us love the case shape of the classy 6139-6020 (or -602X) known as the "Pulsations" (Tristan got me hooked so I dedicate this thread to him).    The story goes that the name "Pulsations" comes from using the watch to time someone's pulse.  Sometimes ebay listers call it the "Doctor's Watch" or a "Medical Chrono" or such nonsense based on the idea of using it to time the taking of the human pulse.   I am here to challenge that as a pure myth and give this reference way more relevance as a cool "must have" version of the 6139 family.

First off, to take someone's pulse, you normally just glance at any old watch or clock, count for 15 second's worth of pulse counts and multiply by 4 (or count off 20 second's worth and multiple by 3) to get the number of heart beats per minute.  Simple stuff.  Ask any nurse. You don't need a chronograph for this.  You need a second hand.  Case closed.

It makes very little sense to envision using the 6139 chrono for this task.   You'd have to grab the other person's wrist with the same hand your watch is on, asking the patient to rotate his/her arm to allow you to see the watch clearly, and then use your free hand to push the start/stop button on the 6139-6020, all while counting off exactly 10 pulses, so you could look at the inner bezel and try to interpolate the pulse rate between markings.   Really ?  This would be a ridiculous way to take a pulse.   It would be way easier to just start the darn sweep second hand, grab the person's wrist with your non-watch hand, rotate your watch so you could read it, count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 (or 20 seconds X 3) like all the rest of the medical community. 

Not sure yet?  Human pulse count simply is between 40 and 200, unless it is zero where no watch is needed  .  So why does Seiko have gradations after 3 o'clock ?   Again, not making sense as a pulse checking stop watch chrono for nurses and doctors. 

This watch is intended to time the output of events. 
-  Say a factory is turning out doughnuts on a conveyor belt.   How many are going by you wonder? If it's how many per minute you need, start the stop watch, count 10 doughnuts go by, stop it, read the number of doughnuts per minute on the inner bezel.
- If it's more like how many finished cars are coming off the assembly line, ROTATE the inner bezel so the dot at "zero" is aligned with the tip of the minute hand.   Wait for 10 cars to come of the line.  Then read the number of cars per hour on the inner bezel.

Now that the 'taking someone's pulse with my Pulsations Doctor's Watch" urban legend is buried six feet under, I present my December 1970 Black Dial RESISTANT and September 1970 Silver Dial PROOF 6139-6020's :

[tritto]

Thank you for the dedication Jon. They're mighty fine examples you have there.
It's a pretty hefty urban legend you're debunking there Jon. I googled and found lots of references for a variety of watches to the pulse rate use (including an optional speedmaster bezel). How many shop foremen were sporting speedmasters in the 60s and 70s?
Besides, watch manufacturers wouldn't be the first to market a function that didn't really do something a whole lot better than the existing way of doing things either. If there is no real need, create a perception of need.
Since camrok actually used one of my 6020s to take a pulse during this years anniversary competition, we better ask him I guess. Cam, did it work ok?
Since we're talking pulsations chronos, I just took this in for a service and hopefully a custom made crystal (I just can't find a replacement). Two years it's been in the box waiting. Who, but a doctor or nurse counts in base 15?

And while we're at it, this 'yachting chronograph' counts knots per cable (on a watch that is marked 'dust proof').😳

[HiBeat]

Ha! I applaud Cam for that awesome post. But Doctors or nurses buying a 6139-6020 back in the day to check pulse? Very unlikely. Make that non-existant.

This is an Industrial Engineer's dream watch. Pure and simple. And a good one at that.

Yes that gorgeous Tissot might just be for human pulse measurement given the scale is limited to 60-200 events per unit of time base 15. So count 15 pulses check tachy just don't exceed 15 seconds to get 15 pulses. Then a change over to standard tachymeter. Plus no inner rotating ring.


As I go to bed I leave the WS Community with this:

Giants 10
Cowboys 7

[camrok]

HiBeat that is a well thought out argument... tritto thanks for the invite to the thread.
There are 2 rather more cynical ways of looking at the pulsations dr watch.
1- Seiko would have likely marketed this in magazines and journals visited by Drs who all want to look like their peers, yet are often payed pittance to start off with. Dr's wore Swiss-Seiko had a reasonably priced and comparable alternative.
2- You can claim anything required for work on tax. So getting a pulsations watch was a piece of medical equipment.

I can measure a pulse in about 3 sec accurate to about 5 beats a minute with no timepiece at all. Not because I'm good, because I do it up to 20 times a day.

So the watch, it is not necessary but it is cool.

I've seen pulsations on speedmasters as an aftermarket mod that in its description suggests the tax write-off potential.


So I suggest it was all in the marketing-
I suggest that all tool watches are rather redundant-
depth sensors, a diver has a separate one.
Altimeter- I doubt a pilot would use one.
Compass-
Counter on the vintage LCD Seiko's
The list goes on.

I do think a specific donut per HR would be an awesome dial and bezel!

Cam

[tritto]

This is the only piece of advertising I can google up this afternoon. Looks like a catalogue scan.

[Adrian-VTA]

I have to agree with what Cam has said. All those complications are completely useless for the most part.

And Jon/Cam, the scale makes no sense at all.

Here's mine. Haven't worn it for ages though.

[SeikoPsycho]

Global Moderator discounting a Seiko?? This can't be good!.............

Meanwhile, I'm headed out to the donut shop to check in on production.........

[Adrian-VTA]

We are fearless and speak the truth here!

How often do you use the 24 hour dial on a 7T12 or 4R37?? USELESS! Unless you're on a submarine or space station...

That is a good looking watch though...

I think the pilots here said the fuel calculator was somewhat useful.

Dec 12, 2016 1:27:34 GMT -8 SeikoPsycho said:

Global Moderator discounting a Seiko?? This can't be good!.............

Meanwhile, I'm headed out to the donut shop to check in on production.........

[SeikoPsycho]

Dec 12, 2016 1:41:10 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

We are fearless and speak the truth here!

How often do you use the 24 hour dial on a 7T12 or 4R37?? USELESS! Unless you're on a submarine or space station...

That is a good looking watch though...

I think the pilots here said the fuel calculator was somewhat useful.

Dec 12, 2016 1:27:34 GMT -8 SeikoPsycho said:

Global Moderator discounting a Seiko?? This can't be good!.............

Meanwhile, I'm headed out to the donut shop to check in on production.........

Just being humorous of course............

Gadgets have always been a huge selling factor whether they are actually practical or not.

[HiBeat]

Never say WristSushi doesn't carry controversial and thought provoking content!

I agree that the 6139-6020 probably carried Marketing claims around taking human pulses.  Thanks Tristan for the old catalog scan - very cool indeed.  I am sure it can be used to take someone's pulse, it just seems to have so much wider application as a tool watch.

When conducting my research (Wow funny how nowadays 'researching something' just means you Googled it!) into other watch maker claims for taking a human pulse, including that gorgeous Tissot Tristan is showing, they tend to be base 15 scales but more importantly they stop the bezel conversion at 60 beats per minute or thereabouts.  This is a Base 10 scale.  That's why I deduce the Pulsations scale on these -602X's are intended for a much wider consumer base.

Add to the puzzle the inner rotating ring.   That works perfectly for Pulsations Per Hour when used with the minute hand.   No other way to explain it.  And it is fantastic!

Maybe I stirred the pot a tad but all in the name of showing how the 6139-602X is even more useful than most people currently see it and to broaden its appeal further.


PS -  Tom how did the doughnut timing go ?  Ha-ha!

[small]

I'd be curious if Puslation doesn't just mean; rhythm, beat, tempo...whether its doughnuts, heart, boxes, etc..Not to be taken literally in "just heart rate"...

[HiBeat]

Exactly Mr. small.

[camrok]

Dec 12, 2016 10:36:19 GMT -8 small said:

I'd be curious if Puslation doesn't just mean; rhythm, beat, tempo...whether its doughnuts, heart, boxes, etc..Not to be taken literally in "just heart rate"...

Well said.
I've taken this directly from the Oxford dictionary.

pulsate
Pronunciation: /pʌlˈseɪt//ˈpʌlseɪt/

VERB

1Expand and contract with strong regular movements:

More example sentences
1.1often as adjective pulsating Produce a regular throbbing sensation or sound:
‘dance the night away in one of the pulsating discos’

Whilst i initially thought of as pulsations of the heart it could be equally useful in music, mechanics, science, engineering etc.

In the last 15 years we have seen a lot more medical terminology be utilized in normal conversation.

I wonder if pulsations in the 70's was as medical as it is now, or if it was as much a disco term as much as it was medico term.

Or even the fore mentioned DPS Timer. (Donut production Speed Timer)

[HiBeat]

Ha !  Today searching for a blue dial 6139-6022 Pulsations photo so I can finish off my set of Black, Silver and Blue "Pulsations" set, I stumbled upon this super-old post by "LesZ" in the old Network54 (predecessor to TOF) and I find it quite interesting.

Here we thought it was not just for timing the human heart rate (Cam proved that works) but also allows for donut production (aka the Donut Production Speed-Timer, or "DPS").   Well, as it turns out, back in 20056 this guy had issues with the whole human heart timing thing given the nature of the scale and the difficulting resolving the difference in human heart beats in the 60-100 bpm range.

His theory that is very interesting, this is as posted to Network54 on February 21 2005 @ 4:57 AM

krisinho wonders whether this pulsometer scale is really for doctors, since, according to his doctor friend, the human heart beats at around 100 bpm. (Where does your friend work, krisinho -- the Kinsey Institute? In my day, the average resting heart rate was 72 bpm.) Well, I have to admit, when I first saw photos of this particular model I also wondered why Seiko decided to specify a base of 10 pulsations, as a) that's not really enough to get an accurate reading and b) most people wouldn't get past 10 seconds on the scale. I now think I've solved the mystery -- and it has a Columbian connection.

If the scale is to be meaningful at all, it has to apply to creatures with slow heart rates. Which creatures have the slowest heart rates? Why, the biggest of course -- whales. According to Columbian scientist (aha!) Dr Jorge Reynolds, who has made a lifelong study of the heart:

A whale's heartbeat is much slower and deeper than a human heartbeat. A whale has about five to six beats per minute at the surface. When it dives 100 metres down the heart frequency is reduced to about half that, maybe three beats per minute to save oxygen and reduce the perfusion of the blood in the superficial organs.

Lookin' good so far. But how would you go about measuring a whale's heart rate? You can't very well ask it to lie down on the couch. Dr Reynolds has found an ingenious way around the problem. He uses a naval submarine to get close to pods of migrating humpback whales, and tape records the sounds he hears.

"Sometimes you can hear the the whales' calls or heartbeats inside the submarine without a microphone. When a whale is very close to the submarine, all you can hear is the sound of it singing. But if you have a practiced ear, like a cardiologist, then, yes, you could hear the difference between the singing and the heartbeats."

So there you have it. I contend that these Seiko models are highly specialized, very rare, highly collectible and extremely valuable special whaling editions, in the tradition of other Seiko special collectors' pieces such as the Pipin diver. They are used exclusively by marine mammal physiologists, and other Important People who have to deal with Big Animals, like zoo doctors. The fact that there's about 50,000 of these limited edition watches in circulation is the result of a rare error in the Seiko production department, arising from mistaking the Kanji character for 500 as 50,000 (an easy mistake for anyone to make). That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[For further info on Dr Reynolds, visit Whale Heart Beat Link

Cheers,

Amazingly the embedded link still works 12 years after it was posted here !

(Too bad I didn't find it in time for April Fool's Day )

[tritto]

Ha ha ha. Surely he's having a lend. Seiko made a special edition pulsations watch 6139 602x) for scientists studying whales and other large animals and instead of building 500 they accidentally made 50 000 of them. That's quite a theory.
Btw Jon, if you need any particular pics of a blue 6020 let me know.

[ausimax]

Seiko put out a 31 page booklet on the Rotary Slide Rule function, unfortunately doesn't relate to Pulsations, handy for finding out how much fuel you have left, in my case by the time I found and read the instructions I would have already ditched in the middle of the Pacific.

Still all these gizmo's make for interesting timepieces.

[HiBeat]

Apr 3, 2017 14:55:10 GMT -8 tritto said:

Ha ha ha. Surely he's having a lend. Seiko made a special edition pulsations watch 6139 602x) for scientists studying whales and other large animals and instead of building 500 they accidentally made 50 000 of them. That's quite a theory.
Btw Jon, if you need any particular pics of a blue 6020 let me know.

Yes please, Tristan one good blue dial photo would be greatly appreciated !

Part of me is thinking a blue 6139-6002 3-line dial might suffice until I can find the Real Deal. I have the spare case but it is missing the dial and movement.

[tritto]

Here's one Jon. I can take a shot of it outside the case tomorrow if you like.

[leffemonster]

And here's mine for good measure Jon.

[Mr.Jones]

I'll join in