Every vintage Seiko carries its birth date on the back, if you know how to read it. This Guess the Year game shows you ten Seiko casebacks. Read the serial, think about when that model was made, and pick the year. Each answer explains the trick.
Loading the game.
The two-second trick
- Look at the serial. The first digit is the last digit of the year.
- The second character is the month: 1 to 9, then O or 0 for October, N for November, D for December.
- Look at the model number. Each caliber and case was only made for a set window, so only one decade fits.
Production windows for the references in this game are in our vintage Seiko reference guides. When you want to check a real watch, put its numbers into the Seiko Franken Checker: it does the same reading and flags numbers that do not belong together. Want a printable version of the checks? Grab the free vintage Seiko buying checklist.
Frequently asked questions
How do you read the year on a Seiko serial number?
The first digit is the last digit of the year. The second character is the month: 1 to 9 for January to September, O or 0 for October, N for November and D for December. Then match the year to the decade the model was made in.
Why can’t the serial tell the decade?
Seiko only stamped the last digit of the year. A serial starting with 2 could mean 1972, 1982 or 1992. The model number tells you which decade, because each caliber and case was made for a limited window.
Are these real watches?
The casebacks are drawn for the game using real reference numbers and production windows. One serial, 321202 on a 6105-8110, comes from a watch documented by a collector on WatchProSite. To check your own watch, use the Seiko Franken Checker.