So, the first workshops began to mark their productions with their name, and also, with a serial number.

Generic products which did not display this information had less appeal to the discerning customers of yesterday. 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. 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.”Īs you can readily understand, this is the moment when the first decorated and marked watches developed. Official records place in 1601 the Foundation of the Genevan Corporation of Watchmakers. 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.Īs 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. 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. And yes, artisans began to use all of them together to distinguish, record and protect their work in later times. Now, the premises for the development of the serial numbers we know of today were all in place. 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. 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. 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. This practice was used also to distinguish other goods other than cattle and assert their originality. By 2000 BC, we saw trace in Egyptian funeral monuments of branded cattle using a hot iron. We find people practicing branding in cave paintings from the Stone Age - when they used symbols drawn in paint and tar. So, we have to come back to a practice - branding livestock - that is much older than the word. 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. 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”. The word “brand” dates back to Old Norse, the ancient North Germanic language from which all the Anglo-Saxon languages derive. Which is intimately connected with a word we often use in marketing, but we have almost forgotten for its original meaning: branding.

This guide will show you how branding came about and how serial numbers are used. 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. A Guide to Watch Serial Numbers & Branding Including Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe & More

Seiko watch serial numbers reference