Glossary
The terms the registry uses, and what each one means.
Three identifiers appear throughout, and they are not interchangeable: the Certificate ID belongs to the record, the Serial Number to the watch, the Reference Number to the model.
- Activation
- The moment a certificate is bound to a watch, at sale. The number on the caseback is entered once and the server records the date.
- Certificate
- The physical object issued with the watch – a card or a booklet – carrying an NFC inlay and a printed Certificate ID. It stays with the piece and opens its record.
- Certificate ID
- The registry's own identifier for one record, printed on the certificate and carried by its inlay. It is the number to enter at Verify. It is not the watch's serial number.
- Country of activation
- The country in which a certificate was activated. Recorded automatically and shown on the certificate. No address is held.
- Custodian
- Whoever holds the watch. The registry uses the word in place of "owner" because it records no owners – a certificate passes from hand to hand without changing.
- Guarantee
- The term of cover given by the maison. SerialProof records its dates and shows its standing; the maison remains the guarantor.
- Maison
- The watch brand or house that issues the watch and its certificate. The registry records; the maison decides.
- Reference Number
- The model or variant number a maison assigns to a design. It is shared by every watch of that model, so it identifies a model and never a single piece.
- Registration date
- The date a certificate was activated, recorded by the server rather than entered by hand. It is the start of the guarantee record and does not change.
- Registry record
- One entry, belonging to one watch: its certificate, its registration, its guarantee and its service history. An entry has no expiry date.
- Replacement certificate
- A new certificate issued for a watch whose original has failed or been damaged, taking over the same record. Whether one can be issued after a loss depends on how the watch is identified – see The card standard.
- Serial Number
- The individual number a maison engraves on a single watch. Where a maison uses them, the record binds to that number and the piece can be identified without its certificate.
- Service history
- Service and warranty-repair events recorded against a registry record by the issuing maison. Entries are added over time and never removed.
- Unactivated certificate
- A certificate produced but not yet bound to a watch. It resolves and says so – it belongs to the maison and to no particular piece.
- Verification
- Reading a record, by tapping the certificate or entering its Certificate ID. It confirms what the registry holds. It is not an appraisal or a valuation.