Hi All,
About six or seven years ago I was sent a copied page out of a book called "Running Recon: A Photo Journey with SOG Special Ops along the Ho Chi Minh Trail", by Frank Greco. A militaria collector friend of mine thought I might like to see the military looking Seiko 5 which purportedly was issued to Recon teams members including Indigenous "Yards" who were working with the teams.
You know the saying don't get me started, well this little bit of information got my full, undivided attention and I spent quite a bit of time studying this model and all it's period variants and thought I would share my observations.
What I discovered was that the only two models that fit the pictured watch on page 94 were the 6119-8100 & 6119-8101. There was also an earlier model which was very similar, the 6619-8060 which is dated 7/66, and a 6119-8090 dated 8/69.
The 6119-8100 is dated 3/68, while the 6119-8101 has a D/68 date and between the two models I can't really see any differences. Could it be like on the divers that there is a 0 for domestic and a 1 for export? Since I can see no mechanical or cosmetic differences in either of them I think that theory has merit.
There was a discussion about these on another forum (MWR) at the time discussing this very thing. A member contributed to the discussion by showing us his father's 8101, which had been 'issued' to him as a Green Beret instructor while stationed in Vietnam. That was some pretty heavy duty additional evidence since original records were destroyed after the Vietnam war was over.
The other thing to keep in mind is that CISO supplied largely 'sterile' equipment to SOG team members so it's logical that an issued watch couldn't be the standard issued US military type so it's easy to see why this model Seiko 5 was chosen, since it so closely resembles a military watch.
In the book, "Black Ops, Vietnam", it is stated that the head of CISO, Conrad "Ben" Baker procured more common items of equipment through open purchase in Japan so this situation seems to jibe.
Additionally this Vietnam militaria site also shows this watch as an issued SOG item: http://www.lkmilitary.com/vsf.htm
My 1966 6619-8060 was a presentation watch and is inscribed on the clasp: 1968, USAJ (US Army Japan), Basketball Champions. It's possible then that since the general model was already known that when the need arose the current clone 6119-8100 was chosen for SOG requirements..
Further, these models do turn up but they are not common and frequently from US sources.
Cheers,
Konrad
About six or seven years ago I was sent a copied page out of a book called "Running Recon: A Photo Journey with SOG Special Ops along the Ho Chi Minh Trail", by Frank Greco. A militaria collector friend of mine thought I might like to see the military looking Seiko 5 which purportedly was issued to Recon teams members including Indigenous "Yards" who were working with the teams.
You know the saying don't get me started, well this little bit of information got my full, undivided attention and I spent quite a bit of time studying this model and all it's period variants and thought I would share my observations.
What I discovered was that the only two models that fit the pictured watch on page 94 were the 6119-8100 & 6119-8101. There was also an earlier model which was very similar, the 6619-8060 which is dated 7/66, and a 6119-8090 dated 8/69.
The 6119-8100 is dated 3/68, while the 6119-8101 has a D/68 date and between the two models I can't really see any differences. Could it be like on the divers that there is a 0 for domestic and a 1 for export? Since I can see no mechanical or cosmetic differences in either of them I think that theory has merit.
There was a discussion about these on another forum (MWR) at the time discussing this very thing. A member contributed to the discussion by showing us his father's 8101, which had been 'issued' to him as a Green Beret instructor while stationed in Vietnam. That was some pretty heavy duty additional evidence since original records were destroyed after the Vietnam war was over.
The other thing to keep in mind is that CISO supplied largely 'sterile' equipment to SOG team members so it's logical that an issued watch couldn't be the standard issued US military type so it's easy to see why this model Seiko 5 was chosen, since it so closely resembles a military watch.
In the book, "Black Ops, Vietnam", it is stated that the head of CISO, Conrad "Ben" Baker procured more common items of equipment through open purchase in Japan so this situation seems to jibe.
Additionally this Vietnam militaria site also shows this watch as an issued SOG item: http://www.lkmilitary.com/vsf.htm
My 1966 6619-8060 was a presentation watch and is inscribed on the clasp: 1968, USAJ (US Army Japan), Basketball Champions. It's possible then that since the general model was already known that when the need arose the current clone 6119-8100 was chosen for SOG requirements..
Further, these models do turn up but they are not common and frequently from US sources.
Cheers,
Konrad