Vintage JDM Seiko 5216 Lord Matic Special
Some time ago I decided that I wanted a very specific Seiko: the 5216 LM Special from the Daini factory.
Produced in the early 1970s, this was an automatic watch built in the middle of Seiko's own quartz dominance: they took the Grand Seiko Grammar of Design aesthetics, paired it with a 28,800 bph movement, and rolled it out to a rising middle class of salarymen at a time when Japan's economy looked like the future of the world.
The 5216 LM Special lasted until 1796 or so. The Grand Seiko and King Seiko lines were formally discontinued in 1975; the Quartz revolution - of Seiko's own making - was in full swing; but on the back pages of the 1976 catalog was this last stand of that era of Seiko automatic watches.
I picked up this mint specimen on the original strap for $200 from auction. The silver sunburst is very difficult to capture with my phone alone. It's an interesting watch with an interesting backstory, and I find it wears perfectly on my wrist.
References:
[1] Owner Review Seiko Lord Matic Special 5216-8020 - BEYOND THE DIAL
[2] LM Special: a Seiko 5216-8010 from April 1975 | Adventures in Amateur Watch Fettling