Notes · 30 September 2026
Catalogue number versus UDI-DI
A catalogue or reference number is the manufacturer’s own code. A UDI-DI is the device identifier in EUDAMED. They can share a label and still differ.
Purchasing systems are full of catalogue numbers, reorder codes, and “REF” lines. EUDAMED is keyed by the UDI-DI. The two often appear on the same label. They are not aliases. A tender that names only the catalogue number has not named the device identifier, and a watch on the catalogue number is only as good as the reference field the public record happens to carry.
How the public record treats the reference
The device payload can include a catalogue reference next to the UDI-DI, the trade name, and the manufacturer SRN. The reference is the manufacturer’s code. It is not guaranteed unique across manufacturers. Two companies can use the same short reference. A search that hits more than one row is ambiguous until you check the SRN.
Search on this site tries an exact UDI-DI first, then an SRN, then a trade name, then a reference. The match type tells you which path succeeded. If you meant the DI and the match says reference, you have not confirmed the identifier you thought you had.
What to store
Store the UDI-DI as the watch key. Keep the catalogue reference beside it for the people who order. When the register changes the reference, or the market status, or the trade name, those are separate diffs. A changed catalogue number with the same UDI-DI is a labelling event. A new UDI-DI with the old catalogue number is a different device record, and the old watch will not follow it by magic.
Open a known DI, for example 10887714028257, and read the reference on that page rather than assuming it equals the code in the purchasing file. The directory is the place to try a reference when the DI is what you do not have yet.
More notes
Not an official European Commission page. Public device and actor pages on this site repeat fields the register already publishes.