Swarovski makes it so easy you don't even need to ask. The first four digits form a date code. The first two digits +30 is the year of manufacture and the next two digits are the week of that year.
I'm not convinced that Nikon serial numbers contain any date or product code. I notice that my 8x30 EII, your 10x42 EDG and most 8x32 SE's have serial numbers of six digits beginning with 50. Clearly, the very same serial numbers must appear in all three models.
Okay, if you don't like my serial #/third digit year/production unit #s correlation scheme or Kevin's product codes idea, then what do the serial numbers mean, oh, Carnac the Magnificent?
I see no reason why the fact that the 10x42 EDG starts with 500xx and the 8x32 EDG with 700xxx and my 8x30 EII starts with 501xxx negates the possibility of a sequential serial #/year/production unit correlation scheme in all Nikon bins.
Where is it written that Nikon can't use the same first number for more than one series of bins?
If anything, the fact that both of the EDG I's have "00" after the initial number makes them analogous to your first edition 1997 500xxx 8x32 SE.
Nikon introduced the EDG in 2008 in the US (a very bad year, as it turned out to be, with the Crash of '08), and then they pulled the plug, redesigned the EDG and introduced the new version in March of last year (at least at shows, I don't know anyone who owns an EDG II yet). But if anyone does have one, please post the serial #.
I'm starting to gather "data" on the EDG Is. I have two so far, one 10x42 received in Oct. 2009, with serial # 500497, the second is an 8x32 EDG, bought last year during the blow out sale, with the serial # 700054.
Could those be the 497th 10x42 made and the 97th 8x32 from the first production run in 2008? I don't see why not. The EDGs weren't exactly flying off the shelves in 2008 with consumers tightening their belt, worrying about losing their jobs or the houses. And then there were also the reports of the loose focuser knob.
But when Nikon started offering discounts in late 2009 on the full sized models and then sold the midsized models with free cameras for $999 in 2010, bino fans starting opening their wallets again and many of those units were sold.
It will be interesting to see if Nikon will continue 10x42 EDG II numbering with 501xxx or start with a new sequence of numbers like Nikon did with the 2007-2008 550xxx 8x32 SE since they were not made in sequential years.
Certainly, there must have been
some reason why Nikon jumped from 501-505 to 550 in the 8x32 SE introduced in 2007. Perhaps because it was the first non-sequential year of production or perhaps because it was the first year they used lead free glass in the SEs? The number change must signify something. They can't just be numbered "willy nilly" or after the designers children's birthdays.
At the very least, the first number represents the model and the subsequent numbers the production units (how many made) even if there isn't a year correlation in the third digit.
What gave me that idea was a sequential year/serial # scheme in the early Zeiss production runs, which was posted on europa.com's bin forum years ago. I don't know how Zeiss works their serial #s today, but there was a time when one digit on their bins serial #s represented the year(s) of production (the production year didn't start on January 1, but in the middle of the year, and thus spanned over a two-year period for each production run). And the rest of the numbers in the serial # represented how many made during that production run. If anyone has that Zeiss bin chart, please post it.
Until Mike Freiberg (or someone else at Nikon not in customer service) tells us what many of us on BF have been asking for several years now about the meaning of Nikon bins' serial numbers, your guess is as good as mine (if you had a guess, that is!
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Brock
