: so does anyone know what these numbers mean in terms of production
: years? Mine is 33XXXX.

No-one knows very well as we don't have an archive of numbers or production records, unlike some other Swiss manufacturers, so the best we can do is extrapolate from other watches, some with signed papers etc. Your number is somewhere around 1977, give or take a bit either way.

Where the Versorgungsnummer is still intact on the caseback, some have concluded that the watch is from 1974 as that number ends -74 but that's not the case. The ones to really look out for are the few issued to the Norwegian Air Force, or Luftforsvaret, as those do include the year in their issue number: