Watchmaker code
 

I was wondering if there is a way to decipher the tiny numbers that are often written inside the casebacks of watches that have been serviced. Sometimes it is very obvious when the watch was serviced like when you see "Feb 05", but other times there is a bunch of numbers that make no chronological sense to me. So is there a universal code that is used by watchmakers or not.
Thanks,
Scott

No, there's not, unfortunately. For us its hard too to figure out what the previous watchmaker did!

I write for example: store code-date(MM/YY)-ROSCTXT-VC

ROS: Rolex Oyster Service
CT: Crown-Tube
XT: Crystal
VC: my initials

:cheers:

Very interesting! Thank you for the info. :cheers:
~Scott

more often than not it is mainly a job# reference/date/initials.

The AWCI gives you a lifetime code for personal identification Mine is 10^RD the little mark between the 10 and rd is actually the delta symbol but I don't have one on my keyboard. So when i mark a watch it's 10^RD then the date say 7/28/09 then under that say coa t/c/cry/ax/2g's which translates to tube and crown crystal axle and 2g's Now understand all this I fit into and area under 1/4/inch you have to use a 10 power scope to read it. Hope that helps Rik the Watchmaker

No thanks!
 

I'd rather not have scribbling inside my watch.

With the advent of computer & Internet, do RSCs still put these notes inside the caseback?

Would it be possible to request the watchmaker not to do that?

You could request it for sure but it's a practice that has been on going for centuries.

Most of the "scribblings" in a case were made by a watchmaker that serviced it every time it came in so he would know what it meant. Old watchmakers had their own individual "system" for making service notes in cases that only meant anything to them.

That's how a few old timers explained it to me. Back then when there was a lot of that going on, you typically stayed in one place a long time you know, you worked in a place and your kids grew up and went to school and you retired and so it went for generations.

Well, you just naturally took your watch to the same guy down town when you got your first one and kept on doing it only now that guy is old, gray and still wearing that loupe.

He knows what that stuff was but when your grandkids pawn it off while in Vegas while in need of more "spending money" well the watchmaker that lives where ever that old tank case Hamilton your grandpa was so proud of ends up, won't have a clue what that scribbling is either most of the time.

Personally I have never marked a case, I put all that info in my watchmaker's record book made for that purpose. All I have to do is look at the serial number to track it.

From http://www.minus4plus6.com/caseback.htm

http://www.minus4plus6.com/images/ca...nscription.jpg

After purchasing the 16710, I had the watch pressure tested at the Beverly Hills RSC. Upon inspecting the original caseback, one can see the watchmakers inscriptions indicating when and where the watch was opened.

The inscription reads as follows: RBH 5/07 3/008 7380
The RBH (Rolex Beverly Hills) makes sense, as does the 5/07 (date). The other numbers are greek to me.

Watchmakers inscriptions on the caseback is a long held tradition that even Rolex follows.

-Sheldon

What he said