Seiko ACTUS - The 70's Keep On Giving

 

The 70's brought the birth of modern computers, iconic fashion trends including flares, knee-high boots, and oversize sunglasses, as well as some "out there" watches as designers pushed boundaries. 

The watch featured here brought an incredibly colourful dial and innovative features not commonly found in entry level watches of the day.

The Seiko 5 ACTUS SS 6106 series was released in the early 70's at a time when the industry was experiencing the immense upheaval of quartz watches. The first quartz watch, Seiko's Astron, was introduced in 1970. Quartz watches, with their incredible accuracy, dominated the market even though they were more expensive than their mechanical counterparts.

The Seiko 5 ACTUS was introduced as a lower tier mechanical watch and became the forerunner of the entry level Seiko 5 range which continues today. 

The watch featured here is from 1973, and has a wonderful blue dial that transcends from a very light blue in the centre to a darker iridescent blue at the extremities. Like many Seiko offerings of the time, the sunburst dial reveals a cavalcade of colour and light as the dial is moved. The hands and applied indices are faceted which adds to the light show.

But this watch was more than just colour and light because it featured the ability to "hack". When you pull the crown out the second hand stops, and that is important for accurate time setting. You can link the watch with a known time standard (in the 70's it was a time signal on the radio or over the telephone) by pushing the crown back in at just the right time and re-starting the seconds hand.

You will see from the photos that the dial has "SS" applied just above the 6 o'clock indice and that is believed to refer to "Seconds Setting".

The features didn't stop there. Date adjustment on entry level watches was done in a variety of fairly cumbersome ways but with this watch you pushed the crown in to advance the date and pushed it further to advance the day. 

The 6106 Seiko's might have been regarded as entry level in their day but time has proved this movement to be very robust and reliable. Good examples continue to provide reliable time-keeping 50 years after the model's introduction.

WATCH: Seiko 5 ACTUS SS 6106-7700                     Year: 1973

Diameter: 37.7mm (w/out crown)    Lug To Lug: 40.5mm    Case Thickness: 11.4mm    Lug Width: 18mm

The watch shown in this post was purchased recently (April 2022) on eBay for A$325.  $325 is a little more than I would normally pay for a mid 70's mechanical Seiko, but this one was purchased from a watchmaker in Tasmania which added some confidence. 

The watch has been lightly polished so as not to disturb the original case lines, and the crystal had been replaced. I have worn the watch for 3 days now and it has gained just a few seconds.

It has it's original bracelet with a unique "Seiko 5 ACTUS" engraved on the clasp. The bracelet is a little "tinny" and doesn't really do the case and dial justice in my opinion. I am contemplating a bracelet swap and will report here if that is completed.

By Greg Smith