Watch special 2022
In the near future, when your 3D avatar is invited to the front row of a metaverse-powered show at the Paris Fashion Week, wouldn’t you want to be seen wearing that very special, limited edition Swiss watch you spent a fortune on? Especially if it is already ‘Metaverse ready’? After luxury fashion brands like Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, luxury Swiss watch houses are embracing the world of metaverse and NFTs (non-fungible token). The idea is to let buyers enjoy their highly prized, branded possessions, not just in the flesh but also in the inevitable digital future.
New York-based Jacob & Co, known for making timepieces for celebrities like Cristiano Ronaldo and Pharrell Williams is launching a limited-edition watch collection that will be ‘phy-gital’, both digital and physical. The collection, ‘Astronomia Metaverso’, is built around the brand’s Astronomia mechanical watch collection. The Metaverso collection will be auctioned at UNXD, an NFT marketplace for luxury and culture.The Astronomia Metaverso NFT collection comprises eight distinct designs, representing each of the solar system’s planets, in a combination of digital and physical versions. Each of the eight watches will be one of a kind.
First mover advantage?
Interestingly, Jacob & Co had already tested the NFT market last year. The brand made an NFT, a digital “piece unique” watch, and successfully sold it for US$100,000 at an online auction. What’s more, the bidder paid for it in cryptocurrency. The timepiece was a modern rendition of their world timer watch ‘Epic SF24’, but instead of displaying different time zones, they redesigned the NFT version of the watch to display 10 different cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Fantom. Is the luxury watch market and its clientele truly ready to invest in such a new, digital concept? How will the mechanical prowess and the look and feel of hand-crafted watches, translate in a Blockchain world?
Lessons from Louis Moinet
One Swiss watch brand that has been bold enough to launch an entire collection of digital-first NFT watches is Louis Moinet. The brand collaborated with a 3D digital creator to design a collection of 1,000 NFTs of its Space Revolution watch. All of the NFT timepieces in this collection maintain full working functionality in their virtual form. Some of these limited-edition digital pieces are already sold out on the Exclusible marketplace. After all, Louis Moinet is the genius watchmaker who invented the Chronograph.
Gateway to art
The NFT and blockchain technology is being creatively utilised by luxury watch brands for not just digital sales but also to update the experience of owning a luxury Swiss watch in an ever-evolving digital age. When Bulgari recently launched the world’s thinnest watch measuring just 1.80 mm thick, they had a surprise on the watch face. At 11 o’clock, is an engraved QR code which leads the owner to the watch’s NFT universe. Each of the 10 Octo Finissimo Ultra timepieces will be delivered with an exclusive NFT artwork, which guarantees the authenticity and uniqueness of the watch. It also gives each owner exclusive access to a digital universe dedicated to their own watch, through blockchain technology.
Blockchain for authenticity
Since 2020, Breitling has been using Blockchain technology as a secure passport for its watch buyers. All new Breitling watches are now delivered with a blockchain-based digital passport, to ensure the authenticity of the watch and offer access to essential information, repair-tracking guarantees, and soon, insurance against theft or loss.
The writer is the founder of Luxuryvolt.com
