LIST OF DATE CODES FOUND ON BULOVAS FROM 1948 UNTIL THE MODERN DAY The dates codes started in 1948 with'A8' and carried on in sequence with a few exceptions, they missed O out I suppose because of the confusion with zero and then missed 'Q,R and S' out for what reason I don't know maybe someone at bulova just didn't like those letters, after 1999 to my knowledge they reverted back to the 'A' series numbers again I'm not a 100% percent sure but I had a very modern quartz bulova which clearly beared a date code of 'A0' so that's what I'm baseing it on This probably doesn't really matter unless you are a serious collector and are only interested in completely original items. If you see one that has three or more years difference in the date codes, I suggest that the watch has been re-cased or made from 2 separate watches. That is common, however, it has been known to never seen an original watch that had a variation of more than one year. It is possible that you may have a watch in which the date code on the movement is different to the date code on the case. The digit represents the actual year in that decade. They used the letter M to signify the decade 1960 to the end of 1969, and the letter N to indicate 1970 to the end of 1979. The code consists of one letter and one number, eg. No need to worry about long serial numbers on these! This can be found on the back of the case and on the movement.

RM00-00 AA BB 00/00).ĭating your Accutron is really quite a simple procedure.īulova mark there dates using a date code system. Please note, there may be variations from the examples below including serial numbers that incorporate dashes (e.g. The serial number begins with the prefix 'RM' and is followed by a series of alphanumeric characters separated by spaces. For example, beginning in the 1950s, Bulova began using a combination of letters and numbers to indicate the year of manufacture an L stood for 1950, so L5 means the watch was made in 1955. Some manufacturers, such as Bulova, have unique identifiers in their serial numbers. Research the manufacturer to find the meaning of the serial number. There was an overlap of the old serial numbers and the new ones sold in 1958 but I don't know how long after 1958 they sold old stock. 5806.135, 4993993 58 is the caliber, 06 is the type of metal used in the case, 135 is the case style and 4993993 is the number of watches made. This is how a typical serial number looks like from this period.

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