So long as you’ve passed your 30th birthday, you can probably remember the days when you could walk around a flea market or a car boot sale and be in with an even chance of turning up a few old watches. If you were really lucky, you might even find one worth having, enjoy a bit of bartering with the seller and end up walking out with it on your wrist in exchange for a paltry sum of cash (remember that too?)
Back then, it was a relatively common occurrence to discover an interesting Seiko and they were almost invariably cheap – after all, they weren’t Swiss, were they? And, as everyone knew, only Swiss watches were any good, right?
Sadly for we bargain hunters, the double-edged sword that is the internet has all but put paid to such useful ignorance and it’s now highly unlikely that anyone with an old Seiko to sell wouldn’t google it first, discover its likely collectability and price it high.
And there are few Seiko models that the scenario is more applicable to than the now-celebrated Reference 6139-6002, more commonly known in its best, golden, egg-yolk-yellow form as the “Pogue” chronograph on account of one having been worn in space by astronaut Colonel William R Pogue during the Nasa Skylab 4 mission in 1973.