Has anyone come across where the Ref. No. & serial no. are reversed on the case?

[Viv Savage]

Recently I came across an Explorer 1016 where the serial number was between 12 o’clock position and the reference number at the 6 o’clock. The serial number dated the watch from 1962. The inner caseback confirmed this. It had a tritium service dial. Has anyone seen this configuration? No pictures of the watch as it is not mine but at a dealers.

[roh123]

Yes. It is known to happen rarely. Just an anomaly if the engravings look authentic.

Not sure if converted rightie watches also had ref and serial reversed. Or if just some opportunists converted the watches due to this anomaly. Who knows?

[Mike Wood]

Yes, recently handled a 1016 with reversed ref. / serial numbers...

[springer]

I have seen and owned two or three GMT 1675s that had that reversed anomaly. If I remember correctly, two of them were from the radial dial era - early to mid-1970s.