In the "It's Always Sumthin" Category...

My watch quit today.  It might only be a dead battery but I kinda doubt that, as I replaced the battery last year and batteries usually last three years or so.  That's been my experience over the past 20+ years I've owned this watch, anyhoo.  And I dearly love the thing... a garden variety Seiko Lassale... coz it's a beautiful piece of work:

I bought the watch about a year after I got out of the Air Force... seeking something simple and elegant... and the watch is all that and a bag o' chips.  And they don't make 'em like this any longer, either.

Jean Lassale, a Swiss watch maker, sold his business to Seiko sometime in the late-70s or 80s (?). Seiko didn't sell their Seiko Lassale brand very long, and those Seiko watches sold new, at the time, for around the $400 to $500 mark. The Seiko Lassale's are Japanese-made and have a Japanese movement. Jean Lassale has since taken up his watch-making business again (I believe sometime after 2000, maybe 2003?). Those watches are "Jean Lassale", are Swiss-made and have a Swiss movement and retail for several thousand dollars. A recent quote I received from Jean Lassale in Geneva was almost $7,000. *gulp*

A used Seiko Lassale can be had at eBay for between $50 and $200, and there is usually a small but steady stream of them. It's worth checking out, because even the Seiko Lassales are beautiful and very, very thin.

I didn't pay near that much for this watch, if memory serves.  I'm not into bling yet I sure do love this watch.  We've been through a lot together and it's been my constant companion for nearly 25 years (it looks it, too). The thought of replacing it with something similar pains me greatly.