My Bulova Watch Serial Number
The Watch Guy: Bulova Serial Number Table & Manufacture Dates
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Bulova Serial Numbers | MyBulova.com - Accutron Watches

Vintage & Antique Bulova Watch Value Founded in 1875, Bulova is a top American watch brand, which at this point in time is owned by the Japanese multinational conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. With such a rich watchmaking history behind the brand, it might be a challenge to find the true value of your vintage or antiq. For example, a 1930s style case, etc., with a serial number that begins with '1' dates to 1931. Prior to 1926, the use of case serial numbers was inconsistent, with many early model serial numbers beginning with '1' or '2' regardless of the date of manufacture. Dating Bulova watches that appear to pre-date 1926 is far more complicated.

My Bulova Watch Serial Number

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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 long serial numbers on these!

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 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

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

Vintage Bulova Watches Serial Number