• Take 30 seconds to register your free account to access deals, post topics, and view exclusive content!

    Register Today

    Join the largest Oakley Forum on the web!

Mike.vanderkoon

I should Work at Oakley
Premium Member
Lifetime Member
3,578
1,873
Arkansas the boonies
I’m starting this thread since we do not have a dedicated thread to the old school color labels that were on specific skus. My intention are the following:
  1. Create a compiled master sku list for the skus that at one point were released with a color label. I believe I have the complete list but if anyone has seen other examples please do comment so I can update.
  2. Identify the latest confirmed serial # released that offered a color label for each sku. The very first releases were the first ones (e.g. early serials) and then at serial number ### they switched to non-color labels. This is by far not complete and is in it's infancy. I will need input from other member’s collections and sightings to complete. In the mean time I am putting the latest serials I have seen at this point. I will update as more information comes in.
  3. Provide examples of each label for informative purposes. I’ve taken some pictures from old threads so if anyone owns the pairs and wants them removed feel free to message me and I’ll remove it. Also, feel free to add pictures in the comments
By my count of confirmed color labels I have seen through various threads or I own, there is a total of 15 color label releases. @SiRacer420 has pointed out that there are two variations of sku’s 04-110 & 04-111. If anyone has seen any other examples of this, I would love to hear or even better see examples of it. Thank you all

R1
04-100 X Metal – Black: Color Label with handwritten serial on front label*. Latest Serial 78657 Latest non color label for original R1 label releast 28078
04-101 Ti – Gold: Color Label with handwritten serial on front label* Latest Serial 038437. Earliest non color label 038482
*For both of the R1’s the outerbox has a sku number instead of a serial. They also are the only one that has a picture on the outerbox

XX
04-120 X Metal - BI Color Label with printed serial on bottom. Latest serial XX14231
04-121 Tio2 - BI Color Label with printed serial on bottom. Latest Serial XT009802 Earliest non color label XT019235
04-122 24k - 24k Color Label with printed serial on bottom. Latest Serial XG005048 Earliest non color label XG007876

Mars
04-103 XM – Black: Handwritten serial and printed serial on bottom**
04-104 XM Leather - Gold: Handwritten serial and printed serial on bottom**
04-105 XM Crater – Black Handwritten serial and printed serial on bottom**
**For all 3 mars, serial numbers should match both outerbox and innerbox labels for a complete match. It is very common outerbox will not match, even when it is the original outer box.
-To my knowledge all the above Mars skus have color labels and were never released without a color label


Juliet
04-110 XM Black: Two confirmed types of color labels:
  1. Handwritten serial and printed serial on bottom*** Latest Serial J005626
  2. Only Printed Serial on bottom. Earliest serial J030331 Latest Serial J106289
04-111 Ti Gold: Two confirmed types of color labels:
  1. Handwritten serial and printed serial on bottom***. Latest Serial T003799 Earliest non handwritten label T07333
  2. Only Printed Serial on bottom: Latest serial T022067. Earliest non color label T044182A
04-112 XM Gold: Color Label with printed serial on bottom (very rare I believe)
04-113 Plasma Fire: Color Label with printed serial on bottom. Latest Serial P023027
04-114 Plasma Ice: Color Label with printed serial on bottom Latest Serial JI007161
***Hand written serial number sets should match both outerbox and innerbox labels for a complete match. It is very common outerbox will not match, even when it is the original outer box

No Confirmed Color Labels for the Following Early Skus:
  • Romeo 04-102 Plasma – Fire
  • XX 04-125 Plasma – Ice: confirmed sighting of a sub 1K serial and no color label
  • Mars 04-106 XM – Emerald & 04-107 XM – Ruby
  • Juliet 04-115 Plasma Emerald & 04-116 XM Ruby


97AD590C-129A-4581-814C-7B21BEB303FF.jpeg
9021CF8F-4D0B-4513-ABE8-B71F113B6F36.jpeg
6247A74D-B16F-41C7-8C88-D3F92E1E9478.jpeg
DBDB7BE3-55C4-4307-9F48-C90A129BFF95.jpeg
30D9A021-0F64-43DF-B68E-C2947912B6A8.jpeg
5196545D-3F9F-443F-8F93-F82612600151.jpeg
FE38A22A-7EB0-43F3-B725-56F7EDC26C96.jpeg
1658543B-AFD3-4168-8D69-78F5E3EEA3FE.jpeg
9A7EE95E-2203-4E85-9E7F-6E22957CA4C3.jpeg
5FBF8798-C8D8-485C-9352-4CA21C915EC5.jpeg
2CF7A5B2-81BB-43EF-BECD-4FD8B6C3FAB5.jpeg

IMGA0008.jpg
0A2A7CA5-19F6-4AB6-842F-9949E9106348.jpeg
 
Last edited:
**For all 3 mars, serial numbers should match both outerbox and innerbox labels for a complete match. It is very common outerbox will not match, even when it is the original outer box
I've wondered a while about regarding the hand written serial verus the printed one on the labels. My impression was Oakley created the labels and printed them all ahead of time prior to producing the Mars or any of the earlier models for that matter'.

Which is why blank space was there so the packer could simply copy whatever the Mars etched S/N was prior to packaging them for retail. Meaning a number matching example could have a printed number under the barcode label that differs from hand written S/N. So long as the hand written S/N matched up to the S/N on the arm it'd be considered a number matching pair.

Though the way I understand your comment is for instance beau1890 Mars' isn't 100% matched despite the written number matching the etched number, because the printed number differs. In order for it to be consider 100% match it should've had 00308 instead of 00417?

If that's the case, would that mean examples where the label is untorn and the printed number doesn't match the hand written one (that matches the frame) is that considered a QC factory error?


20200414_221107.jpg
 
Last edited:
I've wondered a while about regarding the hand written serial verus the printed one on the labels. My impression was Oakley created the labels and printed them all ahead of time prior to producing the Mars or any of the earlier models for that matter'.

Which is why blank space was there so the packer could simply copy whatever the Mars etched S/N was prior to packaging them for retail. Meaning a number matching example could have a printed number under the barcode label that differs from hand written S/N. So long as the hand written S/N matched up to the S/N on the arm it'd be considered a number matching pair.

Though the way I understand your comment is for instance beau1890 Mars' isn't 100% matched despite the written number matching the etched number, because the printed number differs. In order for it to be consider 100% match it should've had 00308 instead of 00417?

If that's the case, would that mean examples where the label is untorn and the printed number doesn't match the hand written one (that matches the frame) is that considered a QC factory error?


View attachment 723769

If, that printed number is a serial number on the older boxes. Then it's likely they printed them. Had a big stack and slapped the sticker on after boxing up the frame. Then wrote the number on. However, if they are going to take the time to laser etch a serial on the frame, box it and then write the serial in the spot, why would they not have the labels in numerical order and match that too? They went to a lot of very picky effort on the XM line, that seems like a huge lapse to not match a printed serial to the frame when it would have been easy to have it in order as they came off the line.

Then you have the R1s initial runs as you can see from my box didn't even have anything other than the SKU. Only a handwritten serial. Also the printed Mars label only has 5 digits instead of 6 as on my actual frame and handwritten serial. My serial is M000380 not A00XXX. Which brings me to, and I agree, what purpose does the A serve on the box? When the serials were Mxxxxxx? So is the printed # on the Mars box really a serial? Or were they really that lazy with the labels after all the effort they went through to serialize the frame and write it on the box they went into?
 
If, that printed number is a serial number on the older boxes. Then it's likely they printed them. Had a big stack and slapped the sticker on after boxing up the frame. Then wrote the number on. However, if they are going to take the time to laser etch a serial on the frame, box it and then write the serial in the spot, why would they not have the labels in numerical order and match that too? They went to a lot of very picky effort on the XM line, that seems like a huge lapse to not match a printed serial to the frame when it would have been easy to have it in order as they came off the line.

Then you have the R1s initial runs as you can see from my box didn't even have anything other than the SKU. Only a handwritten serial. Also the printed Mars label only has 5 digits instead of 6 as on my actual frame and handwritten serial. My serial is M000380 not A00XXX. Which brings me to, and I agree, what purpose does the A serve on the box? When the serials were Mxxxxxx? So is the printed # on the Mars box really a serial? Or were they really that lazy with the labels after all the effort they went through to serialize the frame and write it on the box they went into?
In the beginning they might have focused on keeping the 3 numbers matching, but as time went on it probably got sloppy/it was boxed on friday an then were lazy. Or thats my explanation of how on some polished JB serial juliet's with an earlier S/N can have pretty clean interior orbitals (because they were being picky) while some later examples are rougher then those earlier ones. Which wouldn't really make sense in that more practice (higher serial example) should result in a cleaner product than the earlier ones. Which to me would mean perhaps the earliest models had all 3 numbers matching up, but as time passed it became less of a requirement since the blank space was there anyways.

My thought was if all 3 numbers are to match, it'd take a lot more effort from the logistical standpoint of ensuring no oppsies happen to the packaging prior to be shipped and to ensure no frames are damaged in the manufacturing process - as they'd screw up the numbering if one is to be remade after its already been etched. Opposed to just leaving a blank spot to have the packer mark down what frame is inside, without putting too much focus on have all 3 match.

Say an oopsie in the factory or packaging department happens; you have the boxes with printed labelled M00100, M00101, M00102, M00103 awaiting their corresponding etched frames but some accident happens to box M00101 where it's damaged and needs to be reprinted/replaced. Does that mean the packer then sets aside frame M00101 aside to wait for a new printed label M00101 box to appear... or do they simple put frame M00101 into the printed label box of M00102, but write out M00101 in that provided blank space shifting the numberings by one... until the next oppsie. Or an oopsie with the frame that's already etched (an likely cataloged in their system) is damaged shifting the numbers the opposite direction.​

An explanation for how you got a higher number box could've been because they made more boxes than then actual frames produced. That way when an oopsie happened you'd just go pull a spare box that's a high number as means to not impact the rest of numbers but after all there wouldn't ever be a box with a printed M00101 label out there in the world to match as it was damaged at the factory. So to have a 100% matched pair you are basically playing a game of luck in terms of whoever packed your pair cared enough to ensure all were matched, or just wrote down w/e was etched on the frame.​
TLDR; All 3 matched numbers matching up is game of luck, earlier examples might have matched but as time went on less matches happened as packers became less picky about it, especially as production picked up. Because of this its possible to find a bnib example where the printed number doesn't match to the serial or hand written one, that doesn't mean its really the wrong box to yours, rather whoever was packing it wasn't caring much about the 3 numbers matching just that they were matching the written number to number on the frame.​
 
Last edited:
Then it's likely they printed them. Had a big stack and slapped the sticker on after boxing up the frame. Then wrote the number on. However, if they are going to take the time to laser etch a serial on the frame, box it and then write the serial in the spot, why would they not have the labels in numerical order and match that too? They went to a lot of very picky effort on the XM line, that seems like a huge lapse to not match a printed serial to the frame when it would have been easy to have it in order as they came off the line.

I honestly believe that it is this. Keep in mind it is factory workers and the work gets tedious. Mistakes do get made so it makes perfect sense to assume they were supposed to match the printed serial with the correct frame and also write in the serial number. Why do they write in a serial number if it is on the bottom--I do not know.


Though the way I understand your comment is for instance beau1890 Mars' isn't 100% matched despite the written number matching the etched number, because the printed number differs. In order for it to be consider 100% match it should've had 00308 instead of 00417?

Technically I would say it is not a 100% matching set since all 3 do not match but that does not mean it is not the original outer box that came with the frame. I've seen two examples of sealed sets sold on the forum.-- @beau1890 is one of those examples--that end up having a diferent serial on the outerbox than with the innerbox matching. To me this proves that it can be the original box that came with the frame when the outer box does not match

Furthermore, since @SiRacer420 (and I believe @Wicked said he had a 3 part matching examples) actually have examples where the serial matches for the outerbox, innerbox and frame, it does mean the bottom number is a serial number. I have a mars that is only 1 digit off for the outerbox which I believe strengthens the idea that they may have had a stack next to each other then they grabbed a label, wrote the serial number looking at the frame and then put it on the box. Also, my crater has a nasty tear on the hand written serial but that torn amount is on the outer box label--when put together it is clearly the right handwritten serial--so there is no doubt the outer box is the original one. The serial on the outerbox is about 1K off

That crater example also gets to a good counterargument of some examples of the outerbox serial number a thousand off which hurts that argument of grabbing the wrong label unless they did large print outs of labels which is probably what happened. It gets down to yes its a luck of the draw of getting a 3 part match.

I just realized I never posted @SiRacer420 example of a 3 part match which I meant to do original post :headbang: I'll post these examples shortly.
 
Last edited:
Then you have the R1s initial runs as you can see from my box didn't even have anything other than the SKU. Only a handwritten serial. Also the printed Mars label only has 5 digits instead of 6 as on my actual frame and handwritten serial. My serial is M000380 not A00XXX. Which brings me to, and I agree, what purpose does the A serve on the box? When the serials were Mxxxxxx? So is the printed # on the Mars box really a serial? Or were they really that lazy with the labels after all the effort they went through to serialize the frame and write it on the box they went into?
Apparently R1s had the sku on the bottom only. They also had the picture which is the only one I have seen have a picture on the bottom.

The "A" in the serial. I think that has been debated same with later gens having a "B" instead of an "A". I'll defer to @SiRacer420 or another member on that one. But I believe the A does not mean anything and it commonly replaces the first number.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top