The first automatic chronograph in the world

Jan 13, 2019,03:40 AM
 

Some of us probably have read about "the race of 1969" between Zenith and Chronomatics (Breitling-Heuer-Hamilton/Buren-Dubois Depraz consortium). It was a little tech war in the late 1960s to become the first company to produce the first automatic chronograph.


All the competing companies launched their products in 1969. But in the absence of consensus on what is the criteria of success, that period in the history of horology leaves endless debate about who made the first automatic chronograph.

So here is the timeline of the race that I compiled from several online sources:
  • January 1969: Zenith announced a working prototype to the press in Geneva.
  • March 1969: Chronomatics announced working prototypes to the press in Geneva.
  • April 1969: Both Zenith and Chronomatics showed their pre-production samples at Basel Fair.
  • Summer of 1969 (June?): Chronomatics watches became available to the market.
  • October 1969: Zenith "El Primero" became available to the market.
Few years ago, I found this dirty Seiko in a lot of "junk" watches. It is still dirty today as you can see in the picture below because I haven't had the time to restore it. It is a Seiko 6139-6010 "Speed-Timer" automatic chronograph.




What makes it special is on the back.




Some of you who are well-versed Seiko collectors will easily identify the production date from the serial number "910149". The first digit indicates last digit of the production year (9 >> 1969) and the second digit for the month (1 >> January). The rest 4 digits are the order of unit produced (0149 >> 149th unit produced in January 1969).

This particular example is evidence that by January 1969, there were at least 149 units of market-ready Seiko 6139s came out from the factory.

Comparing this fact to the single working prototype showed by Zenith to the press on January 1969, and several working prototypes showed by Chronomatics to the press on March 1969, I think this Seiko is the first automatic chronograph in the world.

Indera

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Great post, thank you. Seiko are real innovators.

 
 By: nasseriq : January 13th, 2019-03:45
Undervalued in my view simply due for the volume and range of watches they produce, but they have made some gems. Best Reubin

"Innovator" is the right word.

 
 By: nikidasi : January 13th, 2019-10:11
The other word for Seiko is "practicality". I think during the 1960s, Seiko was heavily driven by innovation and practicality.

What a great find!

 
 By: iadxb : January 13th, 2019-04:25
Thank you for the post. I wonder if Zenith and others were even aware of this? Today the information is disseminated instantly, but back then perhaps non-essential news travelled a lot slower...

I think Zenith was not aware of this.

 
 By: nikidasi : January 13th, 2019-10:18
And Seiko didn't seem to care about their achievement in automatic chronograph. They were too busy working on the Quartz Astron, an even much bigger horological milestone, which was released on 25 December the very same year.

Restore it!

 
 By: cazalea : January 16th, 2019-07:57
You will love it. Mine is a bit newer, from early 1972. From this: to this Cazalea ...  

Great job on that Pogue!

 
 By: nikidasi : January 16th, 2019-09:43
I love restoring old Seikos. They deserve second chance. Here is a 6139-6010 I restored 3 years ago. It was in very bad shape when I found it. ...