I have a thing for vintage Seiko watches. Dive watches, dress watches, chronographs, I like them all. But one watch that really caught my eye was the Seiko 6138 Yachtsman. It is better known as the UFO, due to its flying saucer-shaped case. The UFO is a bruiser of a vintage chronograph measuring in at 44 mm wide and 15 mm tall. With a 6.75 in (ca. 17 cm) wrist, its size gave me pause.

For me, the first step in buying a vintage Seiko is research. So, I read all that I could find and meticulously studied pictures of original UFOs so that I would be ready to buy when the opportunity arose. Yet, I was still conflicted by the size.

Then one evening, while perusing WatchRecon, I saw it. An original Seiko 6138-0017 from 1971. After a quick negotiation with the seller, it was mine!

The dial is an inky black with contrasting hour and minute sub-dials that are silver-gray with orange accents. There is an applied Seiko logo at 9 o’clock that is balanced by a Suwa sign and a day-date window at 3. My UFO has the white lumed shorty handset where the minute hand barely reaches the hour markers. UFO chronometer hands usually range in color from pale yellow to red; mine is bright orange. The black tachymeter scale bezel with the deep red ring of color is, in my opinion, one of Seiko’s best. A large unsigned crown makes hand-winding easy. The five engraved rings on the pushers fittingly bring pistons to mind. My UFO didn’t come with an original bracelet, but an aftermarket one from a favorite Uncle does the job quite well.

As for the size, yes, the UFO is tall and chunky. However, due to the hooded lugs and the short 47 mm lug-to-lug length, it actually wears small.

In the end, I could not be happier with my Seiko 6138 Yachtsman UFO. And I would highly recommend one to anyone looking for a timeless vintage chronograph with a great color scheme and wrist presence.