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Locating the Serial Number & Production Year...

Locating the Serial Number & Production Year on Your Rolex Timepiece

When purchasing a high end piece, we understand that you would like to know everything about such piece, but there are times where your pre-owned pieces does not come with papers, so we have created a guide for you to get better acquainted with your new luxury timepiece.

In this minute and half video, you will learn where to find the model number of your timepiece as well as your serial number.

Our expert watch consultant has used an old-style Rolex Submariner- model number- 16610 and a new style  Rolex Submariner model number- 116610 to demonstrate where you are able to find the model number and the style number.

54985                                          58518

Click on the video below to learn how to locate your model number as well as your serial number.

Now that you have your serial number, you are able to determine the date of the timepiece.  It is helpful to know the official Rolex production date for many reasons. First you are able to determine the market value of the piece, you are able to determine the authenticity of the watch, and most importantly you are able to know all of the attributes of your watch, i.e. if it’s a quickset, what kind of crystal it has, and so on…

With your serial number in hand, it is very easy to figure out the year production of the timepiece. Rolex serial numbers are usually between 4-8 numbers and/or letters.  Rolex numbered their timepieces with only numbers from 1926 to 1987 (00,001 – 9,400,000), then they transitioned to a letter and a number (R,000,001 – K,000,001) from the years 1987-2000. For several years after that, Rolex made it easier for us to be able to recognize the production year of the timepiece by only looking at the first letter of the serial number. Until 2011 when it transitioned to a form of scrambled serial numbers.

To illustrate this in an easier way, the chart below will help you look up the production year of your Rolex. For example if your Rolex serial number is R704805 then your Rolex timepiece was produced in 1988.

rolex-serial-numbers-01

 

Now we hope you are enjoying your new or old timepiece as you get to know more about it! If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment or call us at 1800.635.9006.