Designer serial number and date code checkers, brand by brand

Every brand below has a working checker. Read the marking on your item, pick the brand, and find out what it actually says. A code can place a piece in its production run — it never proves the item is genuine.

Returns month + year

Louis Vuitton

Two letters give the factory, four interlaced digits give the month or week and the year. Stamped codes end in early 2021.
Returns a year window

Chanel

The serial's first digits select a window of a year or two, from 1986 to 2021. A microchip replaced the sticker in April 2021.
Returns a year window

Hermès

The blind stamp letter and its frame give the year. Frames stopped after 2014, so a plain letter needs the bag itself to pick the cycle.
Returns month + year

Dior

Two-letter codes read month and year interleaved; the modern 00-XY-0000 layout follows the Louis Vuitton structure.
Returns a year window

Gucci

The classic tab serial gives style and supplier. The black QR tag's code gives the year, from 2014 onward.
Returns month + year

Saint Laurent

Three letters, a style number, then a dot and four digits: month and year, read straight off. The cleanest format of the set.
Returns month + year

Goyard

Three letters, then six digits folded inside out: the outer pair gives the month, the middle four the year. An observed reading — Goyard publishes nothing.
Returns week + year

Celine

One letter, two letters, four digits — the digits interlace into the production week and year.
Era and placement

Balenciaga

The tag's final letter marks the season, running backwards through the alphabet; front and back numbers must match.
Era and placement

Fendi

A 15–17 character dash-separated serial that must match the authenticity card. The marking type places the era.
Era and placement

Bottega Veneta

The ORIGINALITY CERTIFIED tag carries the serial on its second line. Vintage pieces predate the system — no number is normal there.
Era and placement

Loewe

About six debossed digits; the third and fourth generally give the production year. Debossed, never printed.
Era and placement

Prada

Style, material and lot. The date was on the card, never in the number — an honest checker says so.
Returns month + year

Coach

The creed patch reads month and year, so 1994 to about 2014 dates to the month.
Returns a year window

Burberry

The article number identifies the style; the label wording dates the piece across four eras. No other checker asks for the label.
Returns a year window

Rolex

Sequential to 1987, then a letter prefix. Randomised from 2011 onward — those date by paperwork, not by the number.
Returns a year window

Cartier

On a pre-2009 watch the year digits sit inside the serial. Later serials are random — those date by paperwork.
Returns a year window

Omega

One sequential run since 1894 — the number reads to a window off a single chart.
Returns a year window

Panerai

A single caseback letter gives the exact year from 1998 to 2023.
Returns a year window

Longines

One run from 1867, published year by year to 1969 — most numbers resolve to a single year.
Returns a year window

IWC

Sequential since the 1880s — a window for anything up to the mid-1970s.
Returns a year window

Jaeger-Lecoultre

Assigned in calibre blocks — a serial honestly spans three to eight years.
Returns a year window

Vacheron Constantin

Sequential since 1755 — records are partial, so windows carry that honesty.

Compiled from professional authentication reference material and verified against dated examples. A brand appears here only once there is verified reference data behind its checker — for brands whose codes hold no date (and there are several), the checker says so instead of inventing a year.

Questions about serial numbers

Can a serial number tell me if my item is authentic?

No. A code is a manufacturing marking, and counterfeiters copy markings. Read correctly it places a piece in its production run and rules out the crudest fakes — a floor, not a verdict. Leather, stitching and hardware still need a trained eye.

Why do some brands return a date and others don't?

Because not every brand encodes one. Louis Vuitton, Dior and Saint Laurent put production dates into their markings; a Fendi or Balenciaga serial never held a date at all. Each tile above says which is which rather than inventing a year for the ones that have none.

My item has no code at all — is it fake?

Usually not. Louis Vuitton moved to an embedded microchip in March 2021 and Chanel a month later; vintage Bottega Veneta and much older Goyard predate serials entirely. Far more often the code is simply in an unexpected place, or the piece is recent.

Where do the reference tables come from?

Professional authentication reference material, cross-checked against dated examples. Where a reading is observed practice rather than a published standard — Goyard is the clearest case — the page says so explicitly.

Why isn't every luxury brand here?

Because for many brands there is nothing to check — a tool that returns a year for a code holding no year is a guess dressed up as an answer. A brand appears once verified reference data sits behind its checker.

Does the code tell me what my item is worth?

Only indirectly: it places production in an era, and versions of a model do differ in value. Condition, completeness and demand matter more — every checker page shows live comparable pieces with UAE asking prices.

Someone else's checker gave a different year — who is right?

Check which part of the marking it read and which era rules it applied. Several published tools read Louis Vuitton's post-2007 digits as a month, or force a date onto formats that hold none — both produce confident wrong answers.

Can I get the item professionally checked?

Yes — every item sold on Libas Collective can be physically authenticated before it reaches the buyer, and each brand page links its full authentication guide covering leather, stitching and hardware.