Bulova - Serial Numbers indicating Production Dates.

Go to Brittons Watches Home Index page

[ American Waltham | Audemars Piguet | Blancpain | Breitling | Bulova | Cartier | Corum | Ellesse | Fortis ]
[ Girard Perregaux | Gucci | IWC | Jaeger le Coultre | Longines ]
[ Movado | Oris | Omega | Patek Phillipe | Rolex | Seiko | Tag Heuer ]


 

 

 

Buy Gents / Ladies

Company History

Date Your Watch

 


Dating your Accutron is really quite a simple procedure. Bulova mark there dates using a date code system . This can be found on the back of the case and on the movement. No need to worry about serial numbers!

The code consists of one letter and one number, eg. M7. 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 digit represents the actual year in that decade. Therefore, M7 is interpreted as 1967.

L=1950s, M=1960s, N=1970s
example: L3=1953, M4=1964, N5=1975, etc.

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. That is common, however, it has been known to never seen an original watch that had a variation of more than one year. 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. This probably doesn't really matter unless you are a serious collector and are only interested in completely original items.

 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 of this but I had a very modern quartz bulova which clearly beared a date code of "A0" and obviously was not 1940's so that's what I'm baseing it on.

LIST OF DATE CODES FOUND ON BULOVAS FROM 1948 UNTIL THE MODERN DAY

A8 = 1948

N5 =1975

A9 = 1949

N6 =1976

L0 = 1950

N7 =1977

L1 =1951

N8 =1978

L2 =1952

N9 =1979

L3 =1953

P0 =1980

L4 =1954

P1 =1981

L5 =1955

P2 =1982

L6 =1956

P3 =1983

L7 =1957

P4 =1984

L8 =1958

P5 =1985

L9 =1959

P6 =1986

M0 =1960

P7 =1987

M1 =1961

P8 =1988

M2 =1962

P9 =1989

M3 =1963

T0 =1990

M4 =1964

T1=1991

M5 =1965

T2 =1992

M6=1966

T3 =1993

M7 =1967

T4 =1994

M8 =1968

T5 =1995

M9 =1969

T6 =1996

N0 =1970

T7 =1997

N1 =1971

T8 =1998

N2 =1972

T9 =1999

N3 =1973

A0 = 2000

N4 =1974

A1 = 2001

 

Please remember that this is just an approximate guide and can not be used as a 100% accurate outlook as per how old your watch might be. Should you require a more conclusive valuation of your time piece then please do not hesitate to Email-us

To determine the approximate age of your watch, open the case and find the serial number, usually found engraved on the movement or the case back itself, then match it up with the list on this page. Cross reference the Movement number with the case number to find the time scale of when your watch was produced.