A Royal Vintage Seiko

Seiko LM 5606-7150:

Seiko added a touch of royalty to their branding in the 60's and 70's with names like King Seiko and Grand Seiko. They also produced the Lord Matic, a mid to upper level offering that came in under the King and the Grand. The watch was released with a new movement which had some very desirable features, and one component that it would have been better off without.

"A great trio of features."

The LM is not to be confused with the earlier Lord Marvel, and in fact followed on from the Sportsmatic range. The new movement was the 5606 that also found its way into the more up-market Grand Seiko and King Seiko models. It is an automatic movement that featured hacking and hand winding - a great trio for the times. 

It also featured one of the first plastic components used by Seiko - a plastic star shaped wheel that facilitated fast forwarding of day and date. The plastic wheel did its job very well but it aged very poorly and before long, the wheels started breaking - an unfortunate price to pay for experimenting with a new material. It is likely that today there are more broken 5606’s than fully operating ones.

My watch had a broken star wheel but otherwise was in extremely good condition. After-market metal replacement wheels have been available but they require a professional watchmaker to fit to the operating bracket and can be expensive. One solution is to find a donor movement and swap out the bracket with its star wheel (assuming you can find an unbroken one), and that is what I did. 

Incidentally, my donor watch was a Seiko Emblem brand that was released towards the end of the 5606 production run and maybe (I am just guessing) Seiko had improved the component.

"Do not change day/date between 10 and 2 'o'clock" 

It is likely that the design of the 5606 is responsible for one of the most common warnings to owners of mechanical watches. And that is to avoid manually changing the day or date between the hours of 10 and 2 ‘o’clock. The reason is that the mechanical components, including the automatic change of day and date at midnight, all come into play at the same time and place maximum stress on parts. Certainly, with a 5606, you obey that rule.

The LM is a very desirable Seiko brand and good examples are worth adding to your vintage collection. A big thank you to watchmaker Rob Bertoz for fitting the star wheel and performing a full service on my example. 

"Remarkably 9.5mm thin"

The watch is working faultlessly and I estimate it has lost around 10 seconds after 3 days of use. It has a clean easy to read dial, a lovely cushion shape, is light on the wrist, and wears a little larger than the dimensions might suggest. At 37mm diameter, 41mm lug to lug, and a remarkable 9.5mm thin, the watch is a good fit on my 6.75" wrist. This one is definitely a keeper.

Below are photos of the LM 5606-7150 on the original bracelet and on an unusual duo tone leather strap that offers a more flamboyant (dare I say "royal") touch.