Tokyo, summer, 1976. Hiroshi toils away late into the night performing tedious cost calculations at the offices of Yamato Construction, desperately trying to impress the boss. If only he could prove himself to Yamato-san, he’d surely get that big promotion. He looks down at his wrist to check the time; He’s going to miss the 11pm out of Shinjuku again. But more importantly, he realizes the Seiko 5 he’s been wearing since college isn’t going to cut it anymore — not if he wants to be the new district sales manager. Hiroshi always admired Grand Seiko, but he wouldn’t dare upstage Yamato-san’s King Seiko. Not that he could afford it anyhow; Even a King Seiko would be a stretch for his budget. What is a salaryman with a penchant for fine timepieces to do? Seiko, of course, had a solution to this conundrum. While it may not have been culturally (nor financially) astute of our young ambitious friend to wear a Grand Seiko or King Seiko based on his current position in the corporate hierarchy, he could get away with a very nice Lord Matic, such as the Seiko Lord Matic 5216-8020, without violating corporate etiquette.

Lord Matic (LM) was Seiko’s mid-range line of high-quality automatic watches targeting the growing masses of white-collar office workers prospering under a booming Japanese economy. They typically used unadjusted versions of the same movements housed by King Seiko during the early to mid 1970s. While Seiko produced a seemingly endless range of models under the LM badge, this particular model is my favorite with its fine linen dial, Taro Tanaka lines, and super-sharp case.

Is it too sharp though? In his excellent review of the Seiko Lord Matic 5216-8020, Pedro Mendes writes about the possible role it plays in putting an end to Tanaka’s Grammar of Design: “…in the late 70s, business men complained that watches like the LM Special were literally ruining their shirts. Cuffs were fraying prematurely because of all those sharp angles I love so much. And so Seiko softened their case designs, something that has continued to this day.” I guess I better up my wardrobe budget if I plan to keep wearing this.

By the time this LM Special came out in 1976, the Quartz Revolution was already in full effect. The legendary Grand Seiko and King Seiko lines had been discontinued the prior year and new high-end quartz models were now dominating the front of the catalog. The LM Special was actually pretty much the best automatic watch you could purchase new from Seiko that year! Relegated to the back pages of Seiko’s 1976 catalog though, the Lord Matic Special represents the last stand for Seiko’s automatic calibre 5216 and the end of Seiko’s golden age of mechanical watches. To me, this Seiko Lord Matic 5216-8020 will always be the ultimate expression of the classic salaryman timepiece.