Citizen Watch Serial Number
Posts about date of manufacture of a citizen written by Vintage Citizen. The serial number. Tagged Citizen watches, date of manufacture of a citizen.
The serial number has the manufacturing date embedded in it. The same method is used on Seiko watches.
Depending how old the watch is, it may have a 6 or 7 digit serial number. Generally speaking though, the first digit is the year in the decade which the watch was made and the second digit is for the month of that year. Some of the earlier 7 digit serial numbers used the 2nd and third digits to indicated the month; ie 01 = Jan, 02 = Feb, etc. For the 6 digit numbers, the months of Oct, Nov and Dec are represented by the letters 'O', 'N' and 'D'. The trick to nailing down what decade a watch was made in; ie 1987 vs 1997; is styling, catalogue pictures or any source that can locate it to a particular period.
Using the movement calibre is often pointless since movements like the Citizen 8200 have been in continuous production since circa 1975. Hope this helps a bit. Often, posting a picture will have other owners of the same or similar watch, being able to give an accurate date since they may have bought their's new and know exactly when. The serial number has the manufacturing date embedded in it. The same method is used on Seiko watches. Depending how old the watch is, it may have a 6 or 7 digit serial number. Generally speaking though, the first digit is the year in the decade which the watch was made and the second digit is for the month of that year.
Some of the earlier 7 digit serial numbers used the 2nd and third digits to indicated the month; ie 01 = Jan, 02 = Feb, etc. For the 6 digit numbers, the months of Oct, Nov and Dec are represented by the letters 'O', 'N' and 'D'.
The trick to nailing down what decade a watch was made in; ie 1987 vs 1997; is styling, catalogue pictures or any source that can locate it to a particular period. Using the movement calibre is often pointless since movements like the Citizen 8200 have been in continuous production since circa 1975. Hope this helps a bit. Often, posting a picture will have other owners of the same or similar watch, being able to give an accurate date since they may have bought their's new and know exactly when. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk. I have almost the exact same watch(but not as nice as yours). This watch has the 180x caliber(see the 4-180615 on the case back just to the left of CITIZEN) movement which first appeared around 1962 and finished around 1975.
From the serial number on your watch; I'm guessing this one was made in September of 1969. These are very robust movements that keep amazingly good time; even after 40+ years! Mine is a little younger and has the movement that was used before, during and after the 180x series. This one dates to Dec 1969 or 1979 and still works perfectly.
For more reading on this subject, I recommend this site. Go to the 'blogroll' and checkout the Citizen Movement Table.
I have almost the exact same watch(but not as nice as yours). This watch has the 180x caliber(see the 4-180615 on the case back just to the left of CITIZEN) movement which first appeared around 1962 and finished around 1975. From the serial number on your watch; I'm guessing this one was made in September of 1969. These are very robust movements that keep amazingly good time; even after 40+ years! Mine is a little younger and has the movement that was used before, during and after the 180x series. This one dates to Dec 1969 or 1979 and still works perfectly.
For more reading on this subject, I recommend this site. Go to the 'blogroll' and checkout the Citizen Movement Table. Thanks a ton.yes, it's a pretty watch and is ticking away nicely after a service.
I just chanced on it a few days back and it's just the kind of watch I like. Thanks for the link to the site.
Citizen Watch Serial Number Decoding
That's where I am heading to now.:) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk.