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For sale is a beautiful Seiko LM made in August of 1971. This watch had a complete overhaul last year, including full disassembly, cleaning, checking of each part, adjustment, lubrication, and precision reassembly by a highly skilled professional. It runs as beautiful as it looks. The case is tonneau shaped, with tall sides and short lugs. It is in very good shape, with typical light scratches throughout. The tonneau shape is in between an oval and a rectangle and it looks very elegant on the wrist. Size wise, it is 10mm thick, 33mm wide without the crown, and 39mm lug to lug. As always with rectangular shaped watches, it wears bigger than a 33mm round watch would because of the larger surface area. Although originally intended for a man, today this size watch is considered unisex. Lug width is 19mm, and it is fitted with a nice light-brown leather strap (aftermarket) with white stitching and a perforated leather lining to improve comfort. It also has quick release lugs. I really love the dial on this watch. For starters, it is laid out horizontally instead of vertically like almost every other watch, with the logo, dial information, and brand on the left and the day-date on the right, with a line connecting them visually. It’s a great look and pretty unique. The hands and markers are the typical high-quality you expect from the premium Seiko LM offerings, and the dials is a light silver with a radial pattern that reflects light beautifully. It’s a very mid-century modern looking watch. The crystal is tall with thick sides, typical of the period and correct for this watch. It is very clean looking with no issues.. Under the loupe you can see some light scratches and signs of polishing, so it might be the original. The steep sides provide a lot of visual interest when viewed at an angle and really add to the vintage feel of the watch. The movement in this watch is the Seiko 5606, one of the most important Seiko mechanical movements. The 56-series was their last premium automatic movement until the 9S series was launched in the Grand Seikos of the late 1990s, so if you were a Japanese mechanical watch collector, for 20 years this was the best there was from Seiko. This movement was also used in King and Grand Seikos in the 1970s, and was considered top of the line and equivalent to the best from the Swiss. It is an automatic winding movement which hacks and handwinds, with day and date complications, pretty impressive for 1971.. The day is in both Kanji and English. Both the day and the date have quickset features, and everything works smoothly. I timed the watch at -4s per day, an excellent result, better than most new Seikos (your results may vary). The movement was completely rebuilt last year (including full disassembly and cleaning) so it should run smoothly for many years without needing additional service. This watch comes with a nice presentation box. The box is not original Seiko. This was a Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) watch, fairly rare in North America since it was never exported here for sale. In Japan the LM series is highly collectible, and top examples sell for thousands of dollars. LM was the evolution of the “Lord Marvel” series from the 1950s, which eventually spawned the King Seiko and Grand Seiko lines, settling in below Grand Seiko in the complex JDM Seiko hierarchy. LM and Lord Marvel were known for technical innovation, including some of the first 36000 beat movements and highly advanced movement designs. Eventually they were retired by the dominance of quartz in the late 1970’s. Recently Seiko brought back the King Seiko lineup as a premium brand, so who knows, the LM may live again one day. As with all vintage watches, it should not be considered waterproof, and should be kept away from water and high humidity. There are no guarantees with vintage watches. It’s been working for 50 years, and recently serviced and rebuilt, but all mechanical watches require regular service to function optimally so it will require service in the future, and with vintage watches you can’t tell when that will be. Please be gentle when winding and setting vintage watches, out of respect for the age of the movement. With the 56-series of movements, be particularly careful not to set the day or date when the watch hands are between 9-3. The day-date mechanism can wear out over the decades, depending on how it was previously handled, and if it starts to slip it will require service to repair. Move the hands between 3-9 (the bottom half of the watch) before setting the day or date, and try to be gentle with it.