Yves Saint Laurent never had a watch manufacture: the name was licensed, as happened with almost every fashion house. From the mid-Seventies the producer was the Japanese firm Citizen, and the caseback of many pieces still carries its movement code. Others are marked «Swiss Made»: the producer changed over time, and the caseback is the only place where you really see it.
It is the same logic as Gucci, with a geographical difference: where Gucci went through Switzerland, Saint Laurent went through Japan. From the mid-Seventies, YSL-signed quartz watches were produced by Citizen, a firm known for engineering and fair prices rather than fashion.
You check it on the piece, not in catalogues: many watches signed Yves Saint Laurent carry a Citizen movement code on the caseback, of the GN-plus-number kind. One documented example of this sort bears the model number 2200-229-789Y on a 24 mm case — the same 2200 reference still found today.
It does not hold for the whole production, though. Some later models are marked «Swiss Made» on the dial: the licence changed hands, and two watches with the same logo can come from two different countries. Anyone who tells you confidently where yours was made without having read its caseback is guessing.
What makes a Saint Laurent recognisable is not a complication or a case shape, but the way the logo enters the dial. The YSL monogram sits below twelve, or takes the place of an index, or runs round the bezel together with the signature engraved in full.
The second signature is in the bracelet: on some series the links are shaped like a Y. It is a detail you notice only up close, and one you find on no other house.
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There is a practical fact that separates Saint Laurent from Gucci more than any question of style: the bracelet. In the most common Gucci families of those years the bracelet is a rigid bangle, a circle of fixed size. At Saint Laurent the proportion is reversed: nearly every piece has a link bracelet, which any watchmaker shortens in ten minutes.
It is not a verdict on which is better. It is the reason why, if a bangle has never fitted you, this is where to start looking.
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The same holds as for Gucci: the same references stayed in production for years and case numbers are not public. In our listings the year appears only when documented. Where it is not, we would rather give a broad period than write a date we cannot prove.
Not the house itself: the name was licensed. From the mid-Seventies the quartz watches were produced by the Japanese firm Citizen, and many pieces carry a Citizen movement code on the caseback. Some later models are marked «Swiss Made» instead.
In practice the price is set by the model, the state of the plating, the bracelet and the accessories, not the country of production. The Citizen quartz movements of those years are reliable and can still be serviced.
By the YSL monogram on the dial, below twelve or in place of an index, and by the bezel with engraved Roman numerals and the signature round the rim. On some series, also by the Y-shaped bracelet links.
Nearly all of them: they are link bracelets and any watchmaker can adjust them. Lengthening is the hard part, because original links are no longer produced.
