Breitling will go live with an Ethereum-based system to add all new clocks to the blockchain

The actual Breitling watch presented to James Bond in the 1965 film Thunderball (with built-in Geiger counter) apparently sold for £ 25 ($ 33) in a trunk sale. The collectible was later auctioned off at Christie’s for a cool $ 160,000.

However, thanks to the long, unchangeable reach of the blockchain, such mysterious circumstances could never occur to today’s Breitling watch.

Breitling is the first luxury watch manufacturer to offer an Ethereum-based digital pass for all new timepieces on Tuesday. Origin tracking efforts were first introduced for a specific model earlier this year.

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Expensive watches have always come with physical (and now electronic) certificates of authenticity and international guarantees. However, according to Antonio Carriero, Breitling’s chief of digital and technology, there needs to be a standardized method to transparently track the maintenance history and any repairs to the watch officer.

According to Carriero, this requirement is due in particular to the burgeoning second-hand watch market. In recent years, the used watch market has grown to around $ 20 billion, which is roughly half the new luxury watch market.

“Well, if you want to buy a watch from someone [luxury pre-owned watch] Platform, a key element is full traceability of the product you want to buy, full transparency on the history of the product, ”said Carriero. “Today there is no system that standardizes these skills.”

Breitling taps Arianee

Breitling has chosen to work with the Arianee track and trace blockchain, which has ties to the Swiss luxury brand group Richemont, the owner of Cartier, Dunhill, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc and others.

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Arianee’s protocol uses a system on Ethereum that includes so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can be used to watermark a single object such as an expensive watch or even give individual authenticity to a digital work of art.

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Breitling wants the entire industry to work together, according to Carriero, to create a global standard for digital certificates and an API that customers can benefit from, rather than working in silos.

“Everything Breitling has developed to integrate Arianee into its e-guarantee system is available free of charge to anyone who wants to use it,” he said.

Proof of authenticity is a novel and compelling use case for blockchain that differs from most enterprise applications of the technology, which often involve replacing an existing system. So it is not surprising that Arianee is not alone when it comes to labeling luxury items with origins.

In March of last year, the luxury brand conglomerate LVMH, owner of the Louis Vuitton label, prepared the introduction of a blockchain-based authenticity system (code name AURA). The project comprised ConsenSys and Microsoft Azure.

Continue reading: Louis Vuitton owner LVMH launches a blockchain to track luxury goods

Regarding the progress at AURA, a ConsenSys spokesman said there was nothing to add at the moment.

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