05-29-2017, 05:50 PM
1
This here is a new old stock (NOS) Seiko Lordmatic Special, JDM Daini division edition - a double whammy (!) as Daini division was always pushing the design frontier, until its demise in the early eighties. This Daini Special Lordmatic then is a self-winding 23 jewels 5606-5050 from september 1972. It has the King Seiko base movement, an automatic that was thinner then all other auto’s of the time. Notice the mention of A at the end of the caliber inscription on the back, it refers to the accuracy grade A, as these Daini specials were with higher quality and accuracy specs.
Yes, a Lordmatic was made by Suwa, but the Lordmatic Special made by Daini was, well, Special, it had a 21600 beat rate, offered quick set day and date, hand winding from the crown, and the ability to precisely set the seconds though a hacking lever.
The 56 stream seems to have been developed between two other caliber streams, the 51 (starting in 1967), and the 52 (starting in 1970). When the 51 was developed, it had a thickness of 4.9mm. The Cal. 56 steam had a reduced thickness of 4.3mm, and the 52 stream further reduced the movements thickness to 3.9mm.
In this continuing effort to reduce the thickness of its mid to high grade movements, many novel design elements were incorporated into the 5606.
At the beginning of their roughly ten year production run, during the late 1960's till 1970's, the Lordmatics were a one piece design (as this one is) that you could only remove the movement from the front, thereby increasing the water-proofing. For maintenance of the watch, it is opened through and by removing the acrylic glass.
Although the 56 series was later upgraded and used in some chronometer grade King Seiko's, I find it sad that it was not chosen for the task when Seiko made the decision to resurrect the 52 series as the 4s15, with all of its siblings. I really think Seiko was approaching the epitome of automatic movement design in this caliber, and the 4s series is a compromise of some excellent ideas
This Special JDM edition, English and Kanji (Japanese) day, has been undisturbed, stored for many years, but still moving flawlessly after a Seiko shake with only a day difference of 30 seconds. The wow factor is very much present with this one. On the inside this watch is no less impressive in this day and age. The calendar feed changes accurately in 24 hours and the crown works fine adjusting the day of the week or time. Of course, this Lordmatic has the quickset day-date (QS) and can be hand-wound, and is with hacking function. However, all 56 LM calibres apart from the 5601 do have the plastic component prone to wear in the QS mechanism, which is often inoperable. Here no problems naturally, just make sure to always adjust the day at the end of the day.
Finally the flawless original stainless steel band, what a surprise! No folded watch band links here! It is all solid.. and complete, it adjusts to roughly 21cm maximum. It even has the original Japanese paper sticker inside telling the customer or watchmaker how to adjust the watchband.
It is remarkable to still have a "full kit" with NOS original box and LM JDM/English manual, even included is the outer Seiko box made of black paper. This is a unicorn indeed.
Because of its age (45!) this watch should receive a movement overhaul, even though it runs like only a Seiko can after decades have passed.