Watch Year

[oo7ml]

Hi,

What do you use to determine the year of a watch.

As per another post here (which I am very thankful for all of the help, thanks... I am looking for an 1983 Submariner (date of birth).

Some watches are advertised as 1983 production date, while others come with the original sale receipt in 1983.

Which is the ultimate date to go for? I presume production date?

[Tom1675]

Really hard to be specific. Look for a watch with a serial number in the 7 millions, maybe up to 8.2.

[Tools]

Originally Posted by oo7ml

. . .

Some watches are advertised as 1983 production date, while others come with the original sale receipt in 1983.

Which is the ultimate date to go for? I presume production date?

There is no "production date" listing.

All charts are made up of watches that are actually seen in the marketplace, so they all have either sales receipts, or were seen on display.

Mid 50's through mid 70's did have a date stamp inside the caseback which is assumed to be stamped when they put the watch together, but not for the year you are looking for.

[Dan S]

Originally Posted by oo7ml

What do you use to determine the year of a watch.

If you are talking about Rolex, at this time, there's no way to definitively determine when a given watch was manufactured or originally invoiced. For various other brands, one can obtain an Extract from the company archives. Apparently Rolex did sometimes provide historical information to some people in the past, but no longer. If it's important for you to have a watch that was manufactured and originally invoiced in 1983, I suggest considering brands other than Rolex.

If it's sufficient to know that it was manufactured in approximately 1983, give or take a year, then you can use conventional wisdom based on the serial number. If you want a watch that was originally sold to an owner in 1983, then you can look for a watch with its original papers. Of course, a watch sold retail in 1983 may have been manufactured earlier, even by several years.

So in the end, it's entirely up to you, but I think it's fair to say that many collectors feel this sort of birth-year obsession is a fools errand. And especially so for Rolex.