serial number and production date~!!

[HKperf]

I went to jared's today to look at some GMT's and they told me the serial number has absolutely nothing to do with production year. the manufacture stamps the serial number when they make the case. (information they got from their rolex sales reps)
as far as i know, the first letter indicates the model year and the second number is the indication of the order when the watch was made.
the sales lady told me not to believe the information coming from the forum..lol
i think the serial number has everything to do with model year with exception of late z's and late m's overlap.
but i might be wrong too...information regarding serial would be helpful to rolex buyers~

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Well, the letter and numbers don't necessarily give you any precise year of manufacture. For instance, the F serial last from 2003 (Sep) to 2005 (Apr) when the D serial came. So a "D-serial" can be be made somewhere within that timespan. There does seems to be some significance to the numbers, apparantly running continously from 000000 to 999999, making you able to better place a Rolex within a timespan of a serial but only Rolex knows.

The clasp codes (see this list) seem to be a more reliable source to date a Rolex, but note that these lists are made by collectors having assembled the clasp codes over the years. The lists are not official lists from Rolex and should therefore be seen as a guide, not as true gospel.

[mike]

Yeah, When the case is made and when the final assembly of the watch is can vary a bit. Series numbers and serial numbers can give us an approximation, but be carefull being to precise.
I've seen some crazy exceptions to the "dating" rule.

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by mike

Series numbers and serial numbers can give us an approximation