Seiko · Family: Speedtimer
The Seiko Prospex Speedtimer SRQ053J1 is a 42mm steel automatic chronograph with a black dial and white counters ('reverse panda'), the reference that in October 2024 made the mechanical Speedtimer a permanent part of the Prospex catalog, as a direct tribute to the 1969 Caliber 6139 — the world's first automatic chronograph with a column wheel and vertical clutch. It runs the in-house Caliber 8R48, with 45 hours of power reserve. Cazador has no verified price observations yet for this reference. Its stand-out detail: it inherits the mechanical architecture Seiko solved independently in the 1969 race for the first automatic chronograph, also contested by Zenith and the Chronomatic consortium (Heuer-Leonidas, Breitling, Hamilton-Büren).
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In 1969 Seiko unveiled Caliber 6139, a movement that independently solved the same challenge two European consortiums were racing toward: building the first automatic chronograph in history. While the Chronomatic group (Heuer-Leonidas, Breitling, Hamilton-Büren) presented its Caliber 11 and Zenith showed the El Primero, Seiko launched the 6139 with its own solution — a column wheel combined with a vertical clutch — more compact than the European alternatives, though with less media coverage in Europe and the US at the time.
That caliber gained unexpected fame in 1973, when astronaut William 'Bo' Pogue wore his personal Seiko 6139, bought before the flight, aboard the Skylab 4 mission. The episode, recounted by Pogue himself after leaving NASA, turned the watch into the piece collectors call the 'Pogue' and fueled decades of debate over whether Seiko deserved to share with Omega the title of first automatic chronograph in space, since Pogue's use was personal rather than official NASA-issued equipment, unlike the Speedmaster.
Seiko revived that heritage sporadically in limited editions through the 2020s, until on October 1, 2024 it made the mechanical Speedtimer a permanent line within the Prospex catalog, with two twin references — SRQ053J1 in black and SRQ051J1 in blue — sharing the same case and movement.
The SRQ053J1 runs Caliber 8R48, the top tier of Seiko's in-house mechanical chronograph family, hand-assembled and a direct descendant of the column-wheel-plus-vertical-clutch architecture the 6139 introduced in 1969. With 34 jewels and 45 hours of power reserve, the caliber drives a chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour counters on a black dial with white sub-dials — the pattern collectors call 'reverse panda' — inside a 42mm steel case just 14.6mm thick with dual-curved sapphire crystal.
This is the first Speedtimer family reference Cazador adds, extending Seiko coverage in the encyclopedia beyond the divers and dress watches already present, adding one of the most contested chapters in automatic chronograph history.
Cazador has 0 verified price observations recorded for this reference as of today, so we don't publish a range or estimate. Once we have our own verified market data, we'll update this page.
It combines a column wheel and vertical clutch, the same architecture Seiko introduced in 1969 with Caliber 6139, the world's first automatic chronograph with that system. It's a hand-assembled in-house movement with 34 jewels and 45 hours of power reserve.
The nickname collectors give to the Seiko 6139 that astronaut William 'Bo' Pogue personally wore aboard the Skylab 4 mission in 1973-74, an episode that fuels the debate over the first automatic chronograph worn in space.
Approximately 45 hours of power reserve, with an accuracy of +25/-15 seconds per day, per Caliber 8R48's official Seiko technical specifications.
Yes, up to 100 meters (10 bar), a comfortable margin for a daily chronograph, though it isn't intended as a dive watch.
It refers to a dark-background dial with light-colored chronograph counters, the opposite of the classic 'panda' pattern (light background, dark counters). On the SRQ053J1 the dial is black with white sub-dials.
Since October 1, 2024, when Seiko added references SRQ053J1 (black) and SRQ051J1 (blue) to the permanent catalog, following several prior limited editions dedicated to the Caliber 6139 heritage.