The Definitive 6139-600x Buyer's Guide

[Adrian-VTA]

OK I started the thread. Can people dump info in here and when we have some we can curate it.

[Adrian-VTA]

OK first bit of info I have is the dial/indicator ring combinations.

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The PROVEN and LEGITIMATE ones so far are -

Yellow/Yellow
Yellow/Black
Blue/Blue
Blue/Black
Green-blue/Black (debatable)
Silver/Black

These are often quite faded. The blue/black rings fade to a light grey. The yellow rings go white with a yellow tinge at the sides. You can improve the look of these if they are faded but it is hit and miss. They are long since discontinued so come at a premium if you can find them as a spare.

DODGE VARIATIONS -

The completely WHITE ring was NEVER an official SEIKO part and comes from a well-known reproducer on our favourite auction site. BE VERY WARY of any piece which has this part.

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The major legitimate variations here being the blue/black and yellow/black are really only seen on the -6002's. Usually with the president style oval bracelet.

The green-blue dial colour I've made reference to seems to turn up on extremely late run pieces that seem to come from Australia. It's quite likely the colour change has been caused by UV exposure, but I've seen quite a few of them around and own two of them.



After deliberation for years, we now have solid evidence and proof the yellow/black combination is legit. So forget all the misinformation, these guys ARE real and were sold new like that.

Here's some images -



So that is a recently serviced one showing that variation. Now the proof. These photos was taken in 1978 and it's of someone I know and can confirm it's entirely legit and the piece was purchased from a high street jeweller around 1976 like this -

[Adrian-VTA]

HOW TO SPOT A FIXED UP JUNK PIECE (and avoid buying it with prejudice)

I've just picked some images I've found of a piece which hits pretty much every base for what you want to avoid. If someone here is selling this, please accept my apologies, it's not personal. A lot of pieces on our favourite action site will be like this.

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This auction DID NOT have any movement shots, or shots with the caseback off (so you can't see how crap it is inside and if there is any corrosion on the sealing surfaces). They claim the chrono system works.

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So this piece looks pretty good from a distance huh?

First, some pics -









Still with me?


Good, I'll save you 180 bucks, a headache and buyer's remorse.

First point to note, the tachymetre ring is WRONG. The black/red one was never a legitimate combination with the yellow dial. It's actually for another very rare JDM only model, which we can cover in another post. The ONLY legitimate coloures are BLUE/RED, or the "Pepsi" style colours.

Next, the dial. The dial is a FAKE. The dead giveaway for this are the kinda anaemic indices on the subdial and the exclusion of the "Suwa" mark. You know why they don't add the Suwa" mark? Because whatever they use to paint the dials can't handle a custom image like that. Often as well the O on seiko is round instead of a slight oval, and the CHRONOGRAPH text is misaligned. Note the colour difference in the hands? The hands on this model should both be a bright scarlet red. Not the "tomato red" like on the minute counter hand. That's come from the blue dial model which uses that slightly different shade of red hand. The sweep hand is correct though.

On that, notice the very gentle shadow around the indicator ring? That means that it isnt sitting correctly. You know what that is? It's either missing the tension spring, or it's because the piece is fitted with the wrong crystal. If you look at the side shot, it's domed. The correct crystal, either Seikoholic's reproduction or the Sternkreuz replacement is FLAT, not domed. So I dunno what this is but it's wrong.

Next port of call, the case. See how the edges are all rounded? That means it's been refinished. Those case sides should be dead sharp and flat. They should have a very harsh edge on the top and bottom. Also whoever did this one didn't even bother to polish off the sandpaper scratches. D grade work, even for a rookie. The crown on this was correct. The correct crown has a "dimple" in it and should fit quite snugly in the recess for it. The pushers are a very simple style. often the crown and pushers have been replaced with some junk part out of a "crown and pusher superpack" or something similar and are wrong. With the wrong crown, you can bet the stem is wrong too. The stem is very rare and has a spring/gear system to move the indicator ring. If that's not there, it won't work. Here's an image -



If you're looking at paying big bucks for one of these, get the seller to drop the crown out. If it doesn't look like that, don't buy it. I got a piece recently where the indicator ring was listed as working, but it kinda sorta worked, and was a bit dicey. Some crappy watchmaker somewhere had soldered a gear from another watch on a crap generic stem in about the right place. It wasn't even the right gear pitch. It was crap. It's going to cost the dude that it belongs to another $100 at least to correct. No thanks! You can't even rely on the seller saying it works, you gamble if you can't see the stem. Here's an image of the crap, bodged stem



So the final bashing (constructive criticism) of this piece is the bracelet. This is the cheapest and nastiest replacement available. They are about $20 on our favourite auction site. I got one once just for the end links, for a different project, and it is AWFUL. It's actually the worst bracelet I own.

The correct bracelet for these we will need to cover in more detail but it is typically the H link style or oval link president style. 

[feca67]

Other than cosmetic (colour scheme / font) changes, is there any difference between a 6139-6032 and a 6139-600X ? 

[Adrian-VTA]

Besides cosmetic, no. They were a JDM model as far as I'm aware. Same case and stuff, different tachy ring, dial, hands and bracelet. I don't have one so I'll have to get someone that does to give a bit more detail on them.

Oct 21, 2014 2:07:21 GMT -8 feca67 said:

Other than cosmetic (colour scheme / font) changes, is there any difference between a 6139-6032 and a 6139-600X ? 

[siralan]

Here's an example of fake dial and fake hands (hour / minute at least) - the batons are poorly lumed, the 12pm baton is misaligned 





and also an example of a fake crown / incorrect stem with glued gear and no gasket




and the pushers that came with this watch (badly bent, no springs or gaskets)

[Adrian-VTA]

Mar 18, 2015 19:11:25 GMT 10.5 cockroach said:

Thought it was worth warning new Seiko buyers about these dials that are appearing on the market for the 6139-600x in both blue and yellow.



I've had a blue resist in my hands within the past week to service for a guy who brought it on evilBay that was a aftermarket dial. He was so gutted he told me to scrap the watch for spares. I actually fitted a scrap but correct dial I had and now he is over the moon with the watch. Lucky for him I do not build watches out of parts and throw away good dials if the rest of the watch is wrong or beyond saving.



Now I see another aftermarket resist dial but this one is more obvious. First off the minute marker hand should be a 'tear drop' shape not straight but you often see this done even on honest watches. The main thing is the 5 minute markers. The lume to chrome is not only upside down it's too large in that the chrome should be a small bit at the top of the marker and the lume should be towards the center and long. Also the pattern of the dial surface in the sub dial is too course.







Buyer beware.

[Rod]

February 1969. The bracelet is incorrect for this date JDM 6139, but, is correct for later in 1969 world wide.

[Deleted]

I was just writing a quick spotters guide as requested but looks like you have it covered. That is a early model from feb 69! It's a shame more people don't search before buying this crap as the one I pointed out  is already at £150/$175 and is worth less than $50 for spares in my opinion.

[Rod]

Mar 21, 2015 1:14:04 GMT -8 @cockroach said:

I was just writing a quick spotters guide as requested but looks like you have it covered. That is a early model from feb 69! It's a shame more people don't search before buying this crap as the one I pointed out  is already at £150/$175 and is worth less than $50 for spares in my opinion.

Well keep going  we haven't listed all the unique diferences between the early notched case and later notched cases. Not to mention the proof/resistant/resist etc

rod

[seikoman1]

hello, would welcome thoughts on this 6139-6002 one. Blue dial and inner bexel (working correctly), has the dimpled crown too. Serial number 24XXXX so an April 1972 watch? It has a 6139A 17j movement

[seikoman1]

some more photos also

[seikoman1]

final photo

[jimster]

How about dial/indicator colors for the 6139-6030?

black/black

[erk78]

Super informative thread. I wish i had seen this months ago before buying a junk remade one. That would have save me time and money for sure

[rjay]

Hello Everyone!

I'm interested in this Seiko 6139-6002 Automatic Chronograph Men's Watch PEPSI Silver on ebay and am wondering if it's a legitimate variation. The seller seems to be very reputable. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Here's the listing...

www.ebay.com/itm/394034948084

Thanks,

[Fergus]

Possibly some parts have been re-touch or replaced by aftermarket parts.

Understatement...give it a miss.