Rolex

APPROXIMATE ROLEX
PRODUCTION DATES

HOW TO APPROXIMATELY DATE YOUR ROLEX

This chart is designed to help you approximately identify the year of production of a Rolex watch.

If you are in doubt, you can always find the serial number on the warranty certificate. On the watch itself it can be found on the lugs at the 6 oclock position on older models or engraved in the rehaut on newer models.

 

A new serial number system in 2010

In 2010, Rolex introduced a new serial number system for its watches.

This means that Rolex stopped following any sequential numbering system or order altogether, and now, Rolex engraves its watches with a randomized, and unique identifying letter and number. Before this, it was quite easy to estimate the age of a watch, as well as a year of production with the help of Rolex serial number databases.

rolex serial number locator
Year From To
1927 20190 21691
1928 23969 24747
1929 28290
1930 29312
1931
1932 29312
1933 29933
1934 30823
1935 34336 35365
1936 36856 37569
1937 40920
1938 43793
1939 71224
1940 99775
1941 106047
1942 143509 202026
1943 230878
1944 269561
1945 302459
1946 367946 387216
1947 529163
1948 628840
1949
1950
1951 709249 710776
1952 726639 840396
1953 793930 973830
1954 976195 43325*
1955 217821 1297XX
1956 139400 217821
1957 216821 358XXX
1958 353343 426510
1959 399XXX 502683
1960 511687 642993
1961 6469XX 702XXX
1962 763663 894XXX
1963 95XXXX 1021800
1964 997436 1195238
1965 1193XXX 1259699
1966 1289727 1557XXX
1967 1554XXX 186XXXX
1968 1720977 2477152
1969 2060XXX 22927XX
1970 242XXXX 2959XXX
1971 2728XXX 3037XXX
1972 305XXXX 3478400
1973 3523678 3741300
1974 3761535 4194183
1975 3886050 4267100
1976 4155863 4538000
1977 5008000 5367817
1978 5238376 5737030
1979 5952834 6122790
1980 6434000
1981 6594XXX 6910000
1982 7129351 7437845
1983 7862000 8085072
1984 8338000
1985 8624000 8734XXX
1986 9290000 9824763
1987 9863279

As you can see Rolex restarted counting in 1954 when they reached 1 Million.

 

Up to now the exchange cases started with 4,4 Mil. But since all those numbers are used up

they start now with a 4,7 Mil.

 

In 1987 Rolex started to put a letter in front of the 6-digit serial number:

Letter Started in…
R 1987
L 1988
E 1990
X 1991
N 1991(NOV)
C 1992
S 1993
W 1995
T 1996
U 1997(AUG)
A 1998(NOV)
P 2000(JAN)
K 2001(SEP)
Y 2002(SEP)
F 2003(SEP)
D 2005(APR)
Z 2006(MAY)
M 2007(AUG)
V 2008(AUG)
G 2010(JUN)

At the beginning of 2010 Rolex changed the system to individualize their watches.

 

From then the Serial Number will be composed of a random generated 8-digit mix of letters
and numbers which means that from now on only Rolex can tell you when the watch was
produced.

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