Make Offer - 1990's Seiko 7A48-5000 Men's Chronograph Calendar Moon Phase Stainless Watch WOW Vintage Mens Seiko Automatic Day Date 6309-583a Stainless Steel Watch $50.00. Feb 18, 2011 I have an Orient Watch, its a flat square Quartz watch. https://spintires-for-pc5.peatix.com. I remember buying it in 1996/1997. The dial is like matt gold with 2 shiny polished squares for a 12 and 6, which are resembling 4 squares each. And 2 shiny stripes for the 3 and 9. The other numbers are black stripes. The dials are shiny gold. Under the square12 stands: Orient Quartz. While the reference or model number stands for the whole watch, components like the case and movement also have numbers. They tend to be used to determine if a particular component is an original part of the watch. This is especially important for fans of vintage watches with original parts. The reference number is the model number.
Classic watches and those that are well-maintained can become collectors' items. An important element of investing in a watch like those made by the Seiko company is knowing and identifying the design watch you carry. Watches that are no longer in production are more in demand by collectors. Newer watches boast advanced features and sleek designs. Deciphering the Seiko serial number and understanding the bits and pieces that make it up takes a little detective work on your part. Break out the magnifying glass and note paper.
Wipe clean the face and back of your watch with a soft, non-abrasive cloth. Turn over the watch face-down on a soft, cloth-covered surface to prevent scratching the watch face and dial.
Using your magnifying glass, look carefully on the back plate and around the edges of the back cover for numbers and letters. Write down the series of numbers and letters you find engraved on the back of the watch.
First numbers, from 1 to 9, represent the year of a decade in which the watch was made. Letters represent the months of October, November and December. Each decade is represented in 10-year spans using this format. The beginning of a new decade can present a problem because certain numbers overlap.
The next character should represent the month, and can be a number or letter. Two sets of four-digit numbers with a dash between them represent the case and caliber numbers and can help you narrow down which decade you are working with.
The first four digits represent the movement. You can sort the designs of Seiko watches and narrow them further using the movement number and the various serial number portions.
The last four digits represent the model number you are looking for. Write out the entire serial number and the breakdown of its components for future reference and add it to your collection.
Tip
There are many designs and styles of Seiko wrist watches. Browse the company's online site to help you narrow down possibilities on the design year if you are unsure of the numbers used in your serial number.
Warning
Models are often discontinued after a period of time. To ensure correct appraisal of your watch's value, refer to a certified appraiser or jewler after you have identified to the best of your own ability, the model number and maker details.
'When was my Seiko made?' We hear that a lot here at WatchSleuth so we built this page to help you figure it out.The page includes a calculator along with instructions and example images to help you find the movement caliber, case code and serial number on the back of your watch.The calculator uses these codes to do its magic.
Your results will be shown here.If you don't know how to find these numbers on your watch please read our instructions below.
You can also view the entire datefinder database. We encourage people to send us additions and corrections.
Example #1 6119-8083 | 061187 Mvmt-Case | Serial
Finding the Model and Serial Number
Most Seikos have a 'retail' model number that is displayed in the store but not written anywhere on the watch.They also have a 'reference' model number that is written on the case back. Welcome to the black mesa transit system. This reference model number is a combination of two numbers: https://itsgugu.weebly.com/batavus-manual.html.
movement caliber
case code
Each of these two numbers are four digits long and they are separated by a hyphen.In the example images the reference model number is highlighted in red.
The other number you will need is the serial number.This is also on the case back and is six digits long.In the example images the serial number is highlighted in blue.Every watch has a unique combination of reference model number plus serial number.
You may notice this does not tell us which decade.That is why we also ask for the model number.For many of Seiko's movements we know the first year they were producedand for most movements they were produced for less than 10 years.This helps us narrow down the decade.
Using this additional information we can update our three examples:
the 6119 was first made in 1970 so #1 is from 1970 or 1980
the 6309 was made from 1976 to 1987 so #2 is from 1982
the 7S36 was first made in 1996 so #3 is from 2004 or 2014
The second digit of the serial number is also useful. It tells you the month the watch was manufactured.Here are the possible values:
1 = January 2 = February 3 = March 4 = April 5 = May 6 = June 7 = July 8 = August 9 = September 0 = October N = November D = December
Check Seiko Serial Number
The remaining four digits of the serial number indicate the production number for the watch.If your last for digits are 0000 then you have the first watch made for that model reference number.Returning to our examples and using the second digit from the serial number we get the following production dates:
The 6119-8083 061187 was made in June of 1970/1980
The 6309-576A 2D5822 was made in December of 1982
The 7S36-03J0 411082 was made in January of 2014
I know example #3 was not made in 2004 since I bought it new in 2014.
Example #3 7S36-03J0 | 411082 Mvmt-Case | Serial
Why Do We Ask for the Case Code
If you were paying close attention you may have noticed we asked for the case code in the form above but we did not mention using it when calculating the date. Mac tracker free download. You can leave that field blank and still findthe date for your watch however if you complete the field we will provide a listing of watches from our Seiko catalogsthat match the movement and case code.
Special Thanks
What you see here is in large part thanks to this excellent Quartzimodo article How to tell when you Seiko watch was made.Unfortunately the Jayhawk Production Date Calculator (by John Gauch) which is linked to in the Quartzimodo article no longer seems to be available, so we built our own.Another useful resource we found during our research was The Seiko Manufacture Date Decoder on the Retro Seiko website.It does not seem to be as well known and we hope that our movement database is more completeand that our instructions are more helpful.As with any part of WatchSleuth we encourage people to contact us with suggestions, corrections or any other information that would make our site more useful.