In 1978, when the Lord Quartz was introduced and positioned just below the King Quartzes, it was more expensive than a lot of the King Quartz 4823 calibers. Admittedly the 482x was showing its age, but was still perfectly adequate, indeed 40 year onwards these calibers just keep on ticking precisely. But so do the LQ’s. The square styled watches in particular, with calibre 7143 and 8242 were at the top of their range and first to see the light of day. They were depicted in the catalogue right below a modernistic introductory advert. Seiko always did this to present the most prestigious product line watches.

There was no mistake here, this caliber ran at 10 seconds per month! Just like the King Quartz. But unlike the Kings, these Lords are very rare watches to obtain. Either because of the value of the high rollers (costing about 560 euro, inflation corrected) or because the lower range, at 36% percent less (costing about 380 euro), was just cheap enough to simply wear into oblivion. It doesn’t help of course that these watches were produced only in a three year span between 1978 and 1980.

That this product line spoke to the imagination is apparent as Seiko has revived the Lord name in a current line of watches, these are much easier to obtain of course. The vintage Lord Quartz however remains a bit of a unicorn - it does not sit in the house of commons with the other types (II) just below it, but is definitely a backbencher these days while the kings get all the glory. Buy them while you can, they won't last forever.