In the near future, when your 3D avatar is invited to the front row of a Metaverse-powered show at Paris Fashion Week, wouldn’t you want to be seen wearing that special, limited-edition Swiss watch you spent a lot of money on? have done? Especially if it’s already ‘metaverse ready’? After luxury fashion brands such as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, luxury Swiss watch houses are embracing the world of Metaverse and NFTs (fungible tokens). The idea is to let buyers enjoy their highly prized, branded assets, not only in the flesh but also in the inevitable digital future.
New York-based Jacob & Company, known for making watches for celebrities such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Pharrell Williams, is launching a limited-edition watch collection that will ‘fi-gittle’ both digitally and physically. 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 includes eight different designs, representing each planet in the Solar System in a combination of digital and physical versions. Each of the eight watches will be one of a kind.
Louis Moine’s NXT Watches
first mover advantage?
Interestingly, Jacob & Co. already tested the NFT market last year. The brand created an NFT, a digital “piece unique” watch, and successfully sold it for US$100,000 in an online auction. In addition, the bidder paid for it in cryptocurrencies. The timepiece was a modern rendition of their world timer clock ‘Epic SF24’, but instead of displaying different time zones, they reworked the NFT version of the clock to display 10 different cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Phantom. designed from. Are the luxury watch market and its customers really ready to invest in such a new, digital concept? What will mechanical prowess and hand-crafted watches look like in the blockchain world?
Lessons from Louis Moinetta
One Swiss watch brand that is bold enough to launch an entire collection of digital-first NXT watches is Louis Moinet. The brand collaborated with a 3D digital manufacturer to design a collection of 1,000 nft of its Space Revolution watch. All NFT timepieces in this collection retain full functional functionality in their virtual form. Some of these limited-edition digital pieces have already been sold on the Exclusive Marketplace. After all, Louis Moinet is the genius watchmaker who invented the chronograph.
Octo Finissimo Ultra with an engraved QR code
art entrance
NFT and Blockchain technology is being used by luxury watch brands not only for digital selling 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 at just 1.80mm thick, the watch face surprised them. At 11 o’clock, there is an engraved QR code that takes 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 exclusivity of the watch. It gives each owner exclusive access to a digital universe dedicated to their watch via 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 essential information, repair-tracking guarantees, and soon, insurance against theft or loss.
The author is the founder of Luxuryvolt.com