You’re not alone, I have a 6309 coming in and already want to keep it company with a 6105-8000.

Wear in good health!

 

Well, this just took a dramatic turn. Luckily I somehow caught it before it crashed into the kitchen tiles.



I had assumed the strap was recent, but am now wondering if it was brittle, vintage rubber?

Edit: further research says this is a reproduction... and a shoddy one at that, it seems.

 

Was it the orig strap?
Uncle Seiko makes nice ones for this including the waffle like you have, chocolate bar , and my favorite the tire tread which is heftier for this big watch. heresa shot of mine on tire tread

 

Yep, I'm filling up an Uncle Seiko cart right now! As best I can tell from documentation online, what I had was a knock-off Seiko strap.

These vintage divers all look so good on rubber straps! But now I'm self-conscious about their durability. Anyone else have a catastrophic failure with a rubber strap? Or did I just have a really unusually crappy strap?

 

I have a period AQUA GS strap that hasn't had any issue, and I have worn some other diver's on Tropics and Uncle straps and haven't had an issue. I'd be curious to know how old your strap was. I can't imagine anything newer would do that, it seems like an age-issue with lack of pliability and dryness.

 

Here’s my honest 6309-7040 from ‘77. I love how the indices on these early 6309’s warmed. I own the 777 and love having the origin story.

 

Picked up an SPB313 to go with my 6105-8000. Not as charming as the original, but I don't have to worry about getting this one wet or banging into tools at work.





Edit: dang it, I was excited about that bracelet but the pin and collar system was awful! After 45 minutes of trying to seat the collar, it flew out of my tweezers and is now lost for all time. I guess this one's gonna live on a tropic strap for now. $200 bracelet rendered useless by a tiny awful collar .

 

What is the consensus on the traffic light sweep on the 6105's? I don't know much about vintage Seiko, but what I can tell is that:

A) 6105-8000/9 likely came with the longer sweep hand (it's tip extends to the outer edge of the applied indices)
B) 6105-811x likely came with the shorter sweep hand (it's tip hits right in the middle of the applied indices)
C) If you see a 6105-8000/9 withe the shorter (B) hand it was likely a service replacement

Thoughts?

 

Very cool patina!

 

I don't know enough to answer those questions, but I'll add another if that's ok: I've noticed that many lume pips are off-center on these models. The pip on my 6105-8000 is definitely slightly off. Is this a known/accepted printing error on original bezels?

Crop from @Anthony Lane's post above

 

Haven't seen many Arnies in the thread so figured i would post my two, past on the right, present on the left.

 

I've been eyeing a 6105-8000/9 for a while now and couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. I don't know what it was, but I'm sure glad I finally did. I found this one from January of 1970 from a seller in Hawaii who bought it at an estate sale. Everything appears to be original to the watch. This one also happens to be equipped with the hacking "B" movement. Very pleased...minus the part where it's currently losing 30s every 2 hours. Service time...

 

Nice catch! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed mine.

 

It's fantastic. Thank you for playing a roll in me ending up with one. Glad I did.

 

I'm happy to play the role of enabler! Mine says hi! I like how saturated the red seconds hand lume is on yours.

 

.

 

The SLA017,

 

Not a Seiko diver, but… (is there a Seiko dress watch thread?)

A new acquisition in the JDM 6100-8000 “Skyliner” cal. 6100, manual wind, hacking, 21,600 bph, 36mm, no date. This is my budget ($130 all in) pick for the Rolex Air King alternative.

 

I was away with this one for 3 months or so while my watchmaker was taking care of it. A lot was done. It was jeweled, fully serviced, and the crown gaskets were replaced and it passed a 100M WR test. The new Klein crystal made a HUGE difference and this watch is just that much better. Thanks again to @Dsloan for encouraging me to take the plunge on a 6105.

 

Congrats! That cleaned up nicely.