Gene Kranz or Eugene Francis Kranz is an American engineer and former NASA manager famous for his role in the Apollo missions during his tenure at NASA. An air force pilot after graduating from university, he eventually joined the NASA Space Task Group in Langley, Virginia before becoming a flight director. He is most renowned, however, for his role as flight director of the Apollo 13 mission, being instrumental to bringing the crew back safely after the oxygen system failed. He was depicted in this role in the movie Apollo 13 by Ed Harris.

Seiko 5 6119-8460 / Credit: Watch Supply House

What does Gene Kranz have to do with Seiko? Kranz wore the Seiko 5 6119-8460 throughout his career at NASA, in the 1960s and 1970s. He’s pictured wearing one during the Apollo 11 mission and is also known to have worn one during the Apollo 13 mission – the first lunar landing and the close-call oxygen issue in which he helped save lives as flight director. Kranz’s actual watch was supposedly auctioned in the 2010s for a relatively low, 4-figure price. This is especially low when compared to what Colonel Pogue’s actual Seiko Pogue would fetch in auction today, or what many other vintage Seikos go for.

The Seiko 5 6119-8460 was a dive watch made from the late 1960s into the 1970s. It was a simple vintage Seiko, made in a sleek Seiko case with 70 meters of water resistance, a bi-directional rotating bezel, a 38 mm cushion case, 21 jewels, and a day/date function at 3 o’clock. While connected to space, much like the celebrated Omega Speedmaster or Seiko 6139-6005 ‘Pogue’, this Seiko 5 has never left Earth’s atmosphere. Consider it the ‘desk diver’ to the Seiko Pogue. More so than a ‘space watch’, it is one of the notable and quirky vintage Seiko 5s made between the 1960s and 1970s.

By: Andres Ibarguen