Speedmaster Serial, Case, & Year Overview: 145.022 68-78

[Makesbelieve]

I recently purchased the often derided ‘birth year’ Speedmaster. During my research I was struggling to make sense of the sometimes conflicting or abstruse relationship between cases, serial numbers, and years.

To help me understand (I'm a visual thinker) I threw together this little chart which I collated from the invaluable info found at Speedmaster 101, Serial number decoder, and Bob's Watches. I thought I'd post it here to help anyone needing a quick and visual reference (click on the image for a larger version). That being said I would still recommend visiting those sites for more accurate and detailed info.

Warning: I have noticed that this info although coming from relatively respectable sources conflicts with other also respectable sources (particularly Ilovemyspeedmaster.com) so take it all with a grain of salt.

I think this visualisation helps show how long certain cases were used, where certain holes in the knowledge base exist, and the relationship between case and year.

I hope it helps someone, Matt

P.S. If you see any mistakes please let me know.
P.P.S. If anyone thinks I've crossed some line here in relation to copyright/fair use etc I'll happily take the post down.

Edited: Sep 7, 2023

 

[Ron_W]

Very attractive presentation !
As a few sources use 4 digits to indentify serie numbers , maybe you could do the same for the others as well ? Try davidoff at db1983.com

 

[Aludic]

Erm... saved this post with the intent of contributing to it when I have the time... Which is now, but the OP's visualisation seems gone? With about 500 Speedmaster EoA's on file I might be able to validate some of the ranges.

 

[Makesbelieve]

@Aludic sorry, I updated the visualisation based off @Ron_W 's feedback and when uploading obviously messed up.

I have re-uploaded it with the changes and hope that anyone will contribute so I can keep improving it. When viewing db1983.com I noticed that the dates listed there don't quite align as coherently or tidily as the dates on Bob's Watches or the data base on Serial number decoder. I'm assuming db1983.com is more accurate but I haven't had the time to make a visualisation that encapsulates that data set in a coherent and understandable way. On top of that Ilovemyspeedmaster.com doesn't match any of these sets which just goes to show that this is a bit of a fruitless exercise at least in respects to trying to map years to serial numbers.

That being said I'm still very keen and open to feedback as well as any ideas for improvement if people think this is a worthwhile exercise.

 

[Aludic]

Thanks @Makesbelieve!

Just compared your chart to mine; it is certainly a very, very valid guide. Great job done!

That said, it's worth pointing out that the divides between serial ranges are absolutely not clear cut and sub references have overlapping ranges as you have neatly indicated (Potential Serial ranges) as well. Just going by the numbers I've seen (which is by no means comprehensive, but still based on >500 Speedmaster EoA's), the number of watches sitting in these Potential Serial ranges is substantial. So for anyone examining a piece based on any general chart, please keep in mind the number of exceptions is substantial and the watch in question could very well be correct. A few outliers I have observed, confirming some of the Potential Serial ranges listed:

- 145.022-69: I've seen multiple (4 occurrences) extracts of Straight Writing 145.022-69's in the 32,8xx,xxx range, even up to 32,85x,xxx.
- 145.022-71 and even 145.022-74's have been observed with lower serials, as low as 31,009,xxx (2 occurrences).

TLDR? In short: really very little to add here and smart move to end your chart at the 145.022-78; the 80s are absolute mayhem when it comes to mixing serials, I guess that chart would get messy really, really quickly.

 

[Ron_W]

Good update !
I usualy combine the speedmaster101 and db1983 lists. But @Aludic having seen + 500 EoA surely is a great source for help !