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Old 16 November 2018, 03:00 PM   #1
dane-o-2017
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Where's the "Letter" indentifying the year??

If you don't have the paper work, where do you find the letter that indicates the date of manufacture??
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Old 16 November 2018, 03:03 PM   #2
Chilly Coconut
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The serial number is found on the case, between the lugs, or else on the engraved rehaut ring.
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Old 16 November 2018, 03:34 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilly Coconut View Post
The serial number is found on the case, between the lugs, or else on the engraved rehaut ring.


^this

Further, the newer “random” serials won’t have a latter corresponding to any year.


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Old 16 November 2018, 03:55 PM   #4
Tools
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dane-o-2017 View Post
If you don't have the paper work, where do you find the letter that indicates the date of manufacture??
Every Rolex has a serial number.. The letter prefix does not actually indicate a year of manufacture (despite the many Internet charts), but may indicate a range of years it was marketed; only from 1987 until 2010.

So, for the 100+ years of Rolex, only about 23 years will have a letter prefix followed by 6 digits.
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Old 16 November 2018, 04:57 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tools View Post
Every Rolex has a serial number.. The letter prefix does not actually indicate a year of manufacture (despite the many Internet charts), but may indicate a range of years it was marketed; only from 1987 until 2010.



So, for the 100+ years of Rolex, only about 23 years will have a letter prefix followed by 6 digits.

True, but for all the years before the letter prefix there were serial numbers starting at 1 and going through 9 millions, each range of numbers known by year of manufacturing.

https://beckertime.com/lookup-rolex-serial-by-year/



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Old 16 November 2018, 05:54 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SS Oyster View Post
True, but for all the years before the letter prefix there were serial numbers starting at 1 and going through 9 millions, each range of numbers known by year of manufacturing.

https://beckertime.com/lookup-rolex-serial-by-year/



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That Beckertime chart is seriously flawed (and sadly often copied and quoted). Serial numbers rebooted to 100,000 in 1955, not 1,000,000. And they reached 1,000,000 in 1964 - not 1.7 million. These numbers are all wrong from 1955 onwards...
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Old 16 November 2018, 06:11 PM   #7
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The serial number at best gives an idea of when the case was made +/- a year or two... Final assembly and sale to original owner are not trackable by the serial in my opinion. The only actual way to track things is with the original warranty / reciept which states purchase date.
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Old 16 November 2018, 06:25 PM   #8
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This is the most detailed reference for dating vintage Rolex: http://vintagerolexforum.info/vrf/index3.html
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