The year 1984 (that almost sounded Orwellian, I know) was another important date in the history of the Swarovski Optik company. In many aspects they continued the trends from the previous period. Once again they added crystal logotype on the barrels of the prisms and carried on the rules of their serial numbering.
Swarovski Habicht 8x30 W from the company's October 1986 catalog. Version with the crystal logo featuring "SWAROVSKI-OPTIK TIROL" markings and valve screws on the bridge arms. Produced between 1984 and 1990.
The Habicht 8x30 W from that period features serial numbers ranging from 87XXXX to 88XXXX and the Habicht 8x30 N – from 93XXXX to 94XXXX. Once again the company sometimes lacked consequence when it comes to letters meaning the field of view. All wide angle models from this period, as far as I know, feature the capital W after the parameters in case of the N variant the letter disappeared from the casing in the last stage of production (serial numbers starting from 94).
Swarovski Habicht 8x30 W featuring the crystal logo and valve screws on the bridge arms.
I happen to own a pristine model of the Habicht 8x30 N with a serial number of 944444 indicating the very end of the production batch from this period of time and its casing doesn't feature any info concerning the used field of view. Of course it can be easily recognized by its serial number and smaller eyepiece elements.
Please Support Us
If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - R E K L A M A - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Swarovski Habicht 8x30 N featuring the crystal logo and valve screws on the bridge arms.
Introducing full sealing and purging binoculars with nitrogen was the main change introduced in 1984 that made this year a breaking point. Binoculars from this period can be easily distinguished from earlier models because you see sealing valve screws on arms of the central bridge. These changes could be seen in normal and rubber armour versions.
Excerpt from a Swarovski Optik catalog from 1986.
Another important change is connected to the field of view that was decreased even further. As in 1981 8x30 W models catalogues stated a field of 8.1 deg, the advertising pamphlet from 1986 features a value of 7.9 deg. For this variant of eyepiece they also started to include data concerning eye relief distance, amounting to 12 mm.
These modifications meant that the production of the 8x30 N variant had been slowly ceased. The difference of the size of fields of view between W and N versions shrinked successively – at the beginning it was as much as 2 degrees, in the second half of the 80s it decreased to just 0.9 of a degree.
Swarovski Habicht 8x30 W GA from October 1986 catalog.
As we've already mentioned rubberized variants you can also add that in this period the production volume of 8x30 variants wasn't especially high. Near 1985 they started to offer an armoured Habicht 7x42 B with a better eye relief distance and individual focusing.
Swarovski Habicht 8x30 N manufactured around 1989 with a full set of accessories.
