Timeline  /  The first automatic chronograph sold
1969

The first automatic chronograph sold

Seiko’s calibre 6139 was the first self-winding chronograph to go on sale, in Japan in May 1969.

Seiko 6139 automatic chronograph with yellow dial
A Seiko calibre 6139 with the yellow dial, the version known as the Pogue.Photograph: File:Seiko Automatic-Chronograph Cal. 6139 mit gelbem Zifferblatt, die sogenannte „Pogue Seiko“.jpg: Dnalor 01 derivative work: Pittigrilli · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The need
Chronographs were hand-wound because there was no room left in the movement for a winding rotor.
Made by
Suwa Seikosha, part of Seiko. Sold in Japan only at first.
What was new
A self-winding chronograph designed as one movement, with a column wheel, a vertical clutch and Seiko’s Magic Lever winding.
Worth knowing
Seiko did not know there was a race and made no announcement. The yellow-dial version is called the Pogue, after the astronaut William Pogue, who wore his own on the Skylab 4 mission in 1973.

Historian’s noteThere is no single winner. First announced: Zenith, January 1969. First on sale: Seiko, May 1969, in Japan. First on sale internationally: the Calibre 11 group, July 1969.

SourcesSeiko Museum Ginza

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