18 Dec 2011, 19:58
Hi,
After veering towards vintage digitals with a much considered little LED purchase I've kind of found my real place now with Stainless Steel 70's LCD (plus of course a few oddballs......) Great value and interesting internals. I like to know as much as possible about what I'm playing with and this site and the excellent Digital Watch Library are good sources but I'm a little unsure on some serial number issues.
Seiko - is easy and well documented - 1st digit for year of decade and second (1 to 9, O,N,D) for month.
Citizen - Not 100% sure, its been documented elsewhere as the same as Seiko but I don't think so.... 1st digit for year of decade but I've only ever seen 01, 02, ... 11, 12 as the second and third digits. Am I right in assuming the obvious that they use a two digit month code after the one digit year code?
Timex - This is well documented for mechanical watches. Last two digits of the serial number give the year of manufacture. I have found some digitals with an ink printed serial number on the inside of the caseback that seems to follow this format and give convincing dates for the items in question.
Casio - the few I've seen could have their first digit as the year of the decade but I really don't know?
Orient - could be the same format as their neighbours Seiko?
I'm sure someone here knows
Rgds,
MP.
After veering towards vintage digitals with a much considered little LED purchase I've kind of found my real place now with Stainless Steel 70's LCD (plus of course a few oddballs......) Great value and interesting internals. I like to know as much as possible about what I'm playing with and this site and the excellent Digital Watch Library are good sources but I'm a little unsure on some serial number issues.
Seiko - is easy and well documented - 1st digit for year of decade and second (1 to 9, O,N,D) for month.
Citizen - Not 100% sure, its been documented elsewhere as the same as Seiko but I don't think so.... 1st digit for year of decade but I've only ever seen 01, 02, ... 11, 12 as the second and third digits. Am I right in assuming the obvious that they use a two digit month code after the one digit year code?
Timex - This is well documented for mechanical watches. Last two digits of the serial number give the year of manufacture. I have found some digitals with an ink printed serial number on the inside of the caseback that seems to follow this format and give convincing dates for the items in question.
Casio - the few I've seen could have their first digit as the year of the decade but I really don't know?
Orient - could be the same format as their neighbours Seiko?
I'm sure someone here knows
Rgds,
MP.