[Leica] Actual Date of Build?

[WILLIAM CALDWELL <sneeker@erols.com>]

SNIP -- 
Steve LeHuray wrote:

I just looked up the Camera Quest url and it is   www.CameraQuest.com/
The Leica M & R serial number listings have the date of manufacture of
every Leica since the M3 with how many cameras were made on that day.

SNIP --

Steve,

Without question, Stephen Gandy tallied a coup with his publication of
the Leica serial number and date data. From a user and enthusiast, he
certainly has my thanks, and I plan to post a message to him.  

However, while only Leica and perhaps Stephen Gandy can readily confirm
or deny this point, I suspect that the dates given, are, in the main,
the date serial number(s) were assigned to a particular body type,
and/or the date that those serial numbers as a lot were released to
manufacturing, and are not in most instances the actual date of build of
an individual body.

For example, on 3/21/56, a batch of 4400 M3 bodies are recorded.  Others
will have a better handle on actual production rates in March of 1956,
but common sense dictates that Leitz don't hand assemble that many M3
bodies, 4400, in a day, and that the serial numbers were merely assigned
to a production lot of M3s that went into production or assembly at that
time, March 21, 1956.  

[Of course, it could be yet another reporting date.  It could be the
date that the assembled camera bodies of a particular lot were released
from inventory, but that would mean the bodies were built in a period of
time before that release.  From my limited manufacturing experience, the
first supposition, a release of serial numbers for a scheduled or near
future production run of a batch of M3s (or M4, etc.) over a period of
time (more than a day), seems more probable.]

Just my humble view from a reading of the assembled raw data -- --  ,:) 
Please do not accord this reading as fact.

Best Regards,

Bill Caldwell
Northern Virginia