A Guide to Watch Serial Numbers & Branding Including Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe & More
The serial numbers we most treasure in our high-end and luxury watches, guaranteeing their originality and value, are the evolution of a concept that is thousands-years old: the concept of property. This guide will show you how branding came about and how serial numbers are used.
Which is intimately connected with a word we often use in marketing, but we have almost forgotten for its original meaning: branding.
The word “brand” dates back to Old Norse, the ancient North Germanic language from which all the Anglo-Saxon languages derive. Originally, the term signified “piece of burning wood”, which became, through the application of the word in the myths, a way to define a “burning sword”.
However, we must wait until the development of Middle English to see the term used as a verb “to brand”, in the meaning of “to mark permanently with a hot iron.” By the seventeenth century, it became a substantive again, indicating a mark of ownership made by branding.
So, we have to come back to a practice — branding livestock — that is much older than the word. We find people practicing branding in cave paintings from the Stone Age — when they used symbols drawn in paint and tar. By 2000 BC, we saw trace in Egyptian funeral monuments of branded cattle using a hot iron.
This practice was used also to distinguish other goods other than cattle and assert their originality. Pottery makers from China, India, Greece, Rome, and Mesopotamia used various marks to display complex information: the maker of the goods, but also, the materials used and the origin of production, the earliest ones in China pottery dating back to 5,000 years ago.
The use of marks diffused itself in every field where it was possible to apply it, so much that during the Medieval age, most of the Artisans Guild issued and registered a unique mark to each one of their members, which would distinguish the objects he made.
The mark, which was an abstract symbol, became a signature somewhat later, during the Renaissance period, when artists like Michelangelo introduced a new way to do that — by signing with their names, using the common language, their work, rather than with an abstract mark.
Now, the premises for the development of the serial numbers we know of today were all in place. And yes, artisans began to use all of them together to distinguish, record and protect their work in later times.
The marks and brands in watchmaking
Historically, the earliest news of the development of Guilds in horology is from 1554, when Thomas Bayard became the first “orologier” (watchmaker) in Geneva, followed notably by Martin Duboule at the end of the sixteenth century. Geneva, under John Calvin, was also a sort of haven, protecting the Protestants from all of Europe — and many, who curiously were clockmakers, flocked there from France and Italy.
As for the Calvinist religious tenets were very rigorous and favored moderation, goldsmiths in Geneva were forbidden in 1556 from making jewelry and objects of idolatry, so they turned their attention to the manufacturing of watch cases, and the refinishing of movements instead.
Official records place in 1601 the Foundation of the Genevan Corporation of Watchmakers. The rules adopted certify that after an apprenticeship of at least five years, the candidates to the title of Master had to make “a small clock with an alarm to wear around the neck and a square clock on two levels to stand on a table.”
As you can readily understand, this is the moment when the first decorated and marked watches developed.
It is unknown who was the inventor of using a sequence of numbers to record the objects he made, but it seems that it was a smart move, since in this way they communicated effectively that every piece, having a unique number, was effectively unique for its maker. Generic products which did not display this information had less appeal to the discerning customers of yesterday.
So, the first workshops began to mark their productions with their name, and also, with a serial number. Or, better said, many marks and serial numbers.
The Swiss watchmaking industry, as it is proved, results from the cooperation of many small specialized artisans who were trained to make a single kind of object each. So, historically we find corporations of nail-makers, of horse-shoe makers, of locksmiths, of jewelers — not corporations of smiths.
For example, a single watch, which back then was a pocket watch, might have been stamped with a mark and a serial number to indicate the case maker, and another one on the movement to indicate the maker of the movement. In several instances, the dial was also manufactured and decorated by another workshop, as the finishing techniques, which involved the use of enamels and painting were very different than the ones used in traditional watchmaking.
Horology prospered in Europe. So much that by the half of the 1600s, Christian Huygens first improved the observations of Galileo on the pendulum, applying it to the clock, and then, some 25 years later, inventing the spiral balance spring for watches, thereby significantly improving their accuracy.
This was the moment when the English watchmaking tradition and innovation began to flourish: inventors like Edward Barlow (Booth), Daniel Quare and Thomas Tompion develop systems for a quarter-repeater watch, Thomas Mudge invents the lever escapement, the basis of modern watch movements, and the French De Beaufré — who worked in England — introduces the jewel-setting in watches, an innovation that makes them much more precise.
During this golden era, the British verge-fusée pocket watches represented the state of the art of horology, insuring Britain and its makers a dominance on the watchmaking industry that would continue for around one century, only to return back to Switzerland at the half of the 1700s.
During this era, we find the first records about the forgeries — and the first attempt from the authorities to curb them, protecting the quality of the production, and in a way, teaching the Swiss the principles they learned so well with the development of the “Swiss-made” production system that was codified during the 1900s.
In 1698, an Act of William III made it illegal to export from England watch cases without movements. This decision was supported by the fact that great quantities of empty watch cases had been exported to foreign countries where they had been fitted with low-grade movements carrying the names of London makers, and the watches sold as English. In the same Act, it is also ordered that under British Law, anyone making a watch should put on it their own name and place of abode.
The watch cases, before being sold, had to be hallmarked with the standard marks of the law, which through a code of symbols indicated in a clear way not only the material with which the case was made but also its maker and the year of production.
This did not discourage enterprising manufacturers to buy continentally-made movements, importing them in Britain and refinishing them, while adding their marks, name, place of origin, installed them in British-made cases, and exported them again to the continent so to reap the benefits of the “British-made” outlook. Something that wasn’t against the English Law, and became in the 1800s and 1900s a common practice also for Swiss watches.
It is quite easy to understand that, in such a heavily-regulated framework, serial numbers began to appear and be used regularly to distinguish and record the watches made by the most famous manufacturers. A practice that would continue with even more assiduity with the development of the automated processes that rendered watchmaking less than an art and much more industrial activity.
The industrialization of processes also spelled the demise of British watchmaking, and the return of the Swiss-made watches as the new standard of excellence, something that came to be with the development first of the cylinder escapement and then of the so-called Swiss-lever.
And the 1700s is the age of the founding of the first modern Swiss watchmakers, starting from the first which is still in activity, Blancpain, in 1735.
Serial numbers and reference numbers, the big puzzle of today
So, as we have seen, watch serial numbers in history were instrumental to record and certificate the production of timepieces in a company.
The first was, quite logically, a series of increasing numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4…
However, in time the coding methods have become much more complex than that in order to cope with factors of quantity, as it is next to impossible and fruitless to personalize every low-end watch, and exclusivity, as the serial numbers “code”, to be counterfeiter-proof, has to be unique, or at least, difficult to unscramble.
The result is that today, there is a fragmented situation where every brand applies its own rules, sometimes varying them even between its product lines, with the result that for the end-user is next to impossible to determine the legitimacy of a watch based on the serial number alone.
Add to this that some companies, like Longines and Zenith, have amazing archives and records dating back to their founding, while others are instead very lacking in this aspect, and the situation comes out as confused as it is, and always depending on a case-by-case basis.
So, let’s at least explain some of the methods used by some of the best-known brands, without the pretense of being exhaustive in our explanation.
In most of the cases of high-end and luxury watch manufacturers, every watch has two main reference numbers: its serial number and the model reference number, identifying specific information about the timepiece.
The model reference number of a watch is generally numeric or alphanumeric, and it indicates a particular model of watch, and sometimes, other information.
For example, the reference TAG Heuer Monaco 1133b would indicate a TAG Heuer Monaco with the 1133 caliber, with a “b” (blue) dial.
In the case of Rolex, and other cases, the serial number identifies key information about the model of a watch and, also, its year of manufacture (for example, Rolex serial number 9987000 = year 1987).
A typical Seiko would use a hybrid system devised around the 1960s which is based on six digits. The first digit indicates the year, the second indicates the month and the remaining 4 digits a unique batch production number. The month is listed as 1–9 for January to September, then 0 for October, N for November and D for December.
For example, if a reference number is 5D2247 it indicates that this watch was manufactured in December 1975 (or 1985 or 1995) and the unique production number of the batch is 2247. Exactly how this production number was allocated between models and production runs is not clear.
These reference numbers are generally found in the watch documents, that is, the warranty card, but are often inscribed externally or internally on the watch itself, generally on the inner or outer side of the back of the case. But watchmakers have placed these serials — and other “secret” marks — in some other places as well to guarantee that the specimen of the watch you have in your hands is legit.
The famous Abraham-Louis Breguet was famous for having pioneered this technique, which was called “secret signature”, at the beginning of the 1800s.
One of the most imitated watch brands, that is Rolex, has invested many energies to insert marks inside its models so to discourage imitators, but every company has its own systems.
On a Rolex watch, the registration numbers are engraved onto the watch case, between the lugs. You find the model reference number at twelve, and the serial number at six. The new Rolex models also feature the serial number on the bezel, set between the glass and the dial.
In vintage watches especially, the reference number can be found inside the back of the watch-case, a placement that is also preferred by many watch manufacturers, such as Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Omega.
Other ones such as Cartier, Officine Panerai, and Frank Muller engrave their serial and model reference numbers externally on the back of the watch case. The serial number of the watch can also be found within the mechanism of the timepiece itself, inscribed onto the movement, generally in the upper part of the bridge.
So, this is the most common occurrence. In most brand-name watches, you find the serial number repeated and inscribed on the back of the case and on the movement itself.
When there is a bracelet present, some companies like Rolex and Omega tend to inscribe the model reference number on the bracelet/strap fitting.
As a note, engraved on the case, generally between the lugs, you might also find another interesting indication: the kind of metal — or kind of plating — the case has. With the great diffusion of watches after WWII, it became a very common occurrence to use this secluded space to note down the kind of gold-plating a watch had. And it was expressed in microns.
There are several methods to gold-plate a watch, which yield different results, but without going too much into the specifics, it is calculated that every micron of the thickness of gold plating on a watch could withstand one year of constant wear and tear of use at the wrist.
The horror story: Frankens and Ghosts
Now we come to another peculiar aspect of serials, which makes us enter into a sort of Gothic novel in watchmaking. And which derives from a couple of less-than-savory activities, that the use of serial numbers tends to discourage.
The repetition of serials throughout the various components of the watch help determine that the watch is complete and original, and to fight against the phenomenon of the so-called “Frankens”, which instead is a very common occurrence, especially in vintage watches.
A “Franken”, a term that comes from “Frankenstein’s Monster”, is a watch that is assembled from different, and possibly original parts, but it was not never physically made by the company which name adorns the dial.
So, while different important elements of a timepiece may or may not have serial numbers, the practice of etching the serial number in many different parts of the watch is justified by this reason.
And now, we find the ghosts.
Sometimes you would find that some otherwise perfectly original models with their serial numbers carefully removed from every place.
The usual explanation is because they originate from stolen property — and are rendered untraceable to their original owners in this way.
It should be obvious that when you find such a watch, you are probably dealing with the results of a crime — so the best course of action is to bring it to the authorities as soon as possible, as the simple act of owning stolen goods is a criminal felony, and the ignorance of when and how the act has happened does not make you exempt from the law.
Serial numbers and watches from the grey market
Serial numbers are also important in the case of the “grey market”, and the unwillingness of some companies to honor the warranties of the watches which are not sold through their official networks.
So, first of all, a word to explain what is the “grey market”.
It is the name of the perfectly legal market for selling original timepieces outside the official network of authorized retailers of companies.
So, a grey market watch dealer is a store (online or brick and mortar) like us at Luxury Bazaar that sells high-end and luxury watches at a discount over the brand’s authorized dealers.
When a brand or retailer has excess inventory, or in the case of a major change in a collection, they may tap into the network of trustworthy grey market retailers to sell their inventory in bulk — and so — at deeply discounted prices, something that is transferred to their end buyers.
This means that when you buy a new timepiece from a grey market dealer, you are going to get an original watch at a fraction of its original price. However, it is hardly surprising that this practice is not well-seen by the companies and their official distributors, even if they eventually profit from it.
As such, some of the companies, through the tracking of serial numbers of the sold watches, can discover where the batch of watches a grey market dealer is selling, and act upon if the issue is against the company’s distribution policies. As such, while on one hand they quietly sell to grey market vendors to get rid of their inventory, on the other hands they refuse to honor the service warranty of a watch sold through this channel.
While this might be felt like a problem by some high-end and luxury watch buyers, the hard fact is that any respectable grey market retailer, like us at Luxury Bazaar, offers very generous warranties to cover any kind of issues a watch sold through them could have.
With the added bonus that the buyers are going to reap the benefits of buying online original watches at a substantial saving over the list price, and with the added options to trade in their old watches, to finance their purchases, and to buy additional service plans for their timepieces to insure a perfect peace of mind.
