And Seiko has taken its own sweet time to please its fans, first with the SLA033 and today with the SPB151 and SPB153.
#Spb 153 movie
The call for a re-edition increased notably with the re-release of the movie in 2001 (known as Apocalypse Now Redux). American actors Martin Sheen (left) and Frederic Forrest (right) walk together on the set of their film, Apocalypse Now (Photo by Steve Schapiro/Corbis via Getty Images. When the soldiers returned to civilian life, so did the watch. The watch earned a solid reputation among the ranks for being a sturdy piece of equipment, to the point of becoming a favourite among the soldiers. It turns out that the 6105 was sold in Asia during the Vietnam conflict and American soldiers had better – and cheaper – access to it than locals because they paid in dollars. Not just a fancy prop, the watch was actually used in a real wartime situation. The watch was worn by one of the movie’s main characters, Captain Willard, portrayed by Martin Sheen. Second, the reason for the fame of the reference 6105 has to do with the iconic movie, Apocalypse Now. Dennis Hopper, Martin Sheen, and Frederic Forrest survey a temple in a scene from the film Apocalypse Now, 1979. Not as part of a marketing campaign orchestrated by Seiko it was just a watch that was robust, reliable and durable enough to accompany Uemura on his adventures. Why it matters is because he was wearing a 6105 during most of his travels. He was also the first to descend the Amazon river in a boat. He was the first to reach the North Pole alone. For instance, he undertook a one-man dog-sledge run from Greenland to Alaska, a journey of 12,000 km that took 18 months. First, it was tested in real life by explorer Naomi Uemura, a very popular Japanese adventurer, well respected for having achieved solo feats.
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What caught everybody’s eye was the crown positioned at 4 o’clock (which was, in fact, used for the first time in the 1961 Seiko Silver Wave) and the big, lower crown protector. Produced from 1968 onwards, the Seiko 6105 was a sturdy dive watch with a water-resistance of 150 metres. But the topic of the day is the Captain Willard watch, as such a 6105. While quite similar to the 6105, the 6309 has an even more asymmetrical case design and also adds a day function and a dial with circular luminous plots instead of rectangular ones.
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The Turtle concept, with its atypical case, started life with the reference 6105, later replaced in 1976 by the 6309 series. An example of Seiko 6105-8110 – image by Fratello Watches On the other side of the range, there was the Seiko 1970 Diver’s Re-Creation SLA033, a far more precise and high-end take on the Turtle watch, this time a faithful recreation of the 6105 watch. There’s already a widely available modern interpretation in collection, with the accessible SRP series. This isn’t the first time that Seiko brings back a reissue of the so-called Turtle watch. Backgroundīefore we move on with this article, it’s important to remember where the Seiko ‘Captain Willard’ Reissue comes from. But it will simply reflect why I think (why I’m sure, actually) the Captain Willard SPB153 is the coolest Seiko of 2020. So, let’s make it clear, this article is not going to be objective. Available in black and in green, and despite the fact that the green version is not historically relevant, I immediately fell in love with this olive-coloured, military-inspired edition… and I bought it.
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Earlier this year, Seiko brought back one of its legendary designs, a watch that not only marked the brand’s history and became an incredible commercial success in the 1970s, but a watch that gained fame after being worn on Captain Willard’s (Martin Sheen) wrist in Apocalypse Now.