I am a big fan of Vintage Seikos. This Vintage Seiko Sea horse 6601-9990, automatic is the latest addition to my collection. It was very kindly donated to me by ‘RWP’ from The Watch Forum and I am very grateful as I really love this watch! The applied indices combined with the dauphine hands and sweeping second hand all in silver, the raised markers surrounding the watch dial provide a very classic and elegant design experience, not unlike the Grand Seiko’s models of today.
The condition of this Seiko Sea horse 6601-9990 is sublime, it is hard to believe it dates from 1965, and is keeping time well within a minute a day. I will get it serviced it due time, but I am very happy with the time keeping. The 17 Jewel Automatic 6601 movement uses a ball-bearing rotor, with a sophisticated excenter self-winding mechanism with just one gear stage Kif-Duofix combined settings for escapement wheel, with Diashock protection. The case has not been polished all edges are clean and sharp, the crown recedes very neatly into the watch case and adds to the elegance of this wonderful timepiece.
(Please forgive the shadow in the picture on and below the hour hand)
The Seiko Sea horse 6601-9990 back case does not show the Sea horse logo, as this is displayed only on the manual wind versions, but information is not conclusive and there does seem to be the odd exception to the rule found. What is known the Automatic versions are rarer than the manual wind models, and this models back case is inscribed with ‘Seiko Sportsmatic’. It is currently on a 20mm dark brown calf skin band, I may change it to a 19mm Black-Croc band and update the pictures in due time. Want to date your Seiko click here.
Thanks for reading, comments are most welcome.
Cheers Martin
Hi Martin,
I’ve got a gold plated Sea horse automatic that my dad got for his 21st. From your helpful dating guide it’s from May 1955.
Serial no. 5500050/ Model no. 6601-7010
Can these watches be manually wound using the crown, or do you just have to shake it about?
Hi Mike,
My apologies for my late reply, these models cannot be manually wound via the crown. But they should wind very easily by a slight forward and backward motion. You can also hear the rotor winding the mechanism that will confirm it is working, as well as the watch starting to work of course. Also I would say it dates 1965.
Good luck! And thanks for posting.
Cheers Martin