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Legendary watch industry expert Jean-Claude Biver announcing the first historic NFT auction of a luxury watch

April 8, 2021March 31, 2021 by Editorial Team

@Hublot Bigger Bang All Black Tourbillon Chronograph “Special piece” for NFT (Non Fungible Token) sale

Where auctions are already soaring for works of art and intangibles, never before has a luxury watch been the subject of an NFT (Non Fungible Token) sale. This watch will be the first luxury watch to have a digital life with certified ownership and authenticity. This digital twin will be the “authentic” double of the physical watch in the digital space.

Jean-Claude Biver and Switzerland’s WISeKey International Holding, a Swiss cybersecurity company, are leading the way in announcing the first historic NFT auction of a luxury watch. The auction took place on March 31, 2021 on the leading Open.Sea NFT MarketPlace, which is already active in the sale of artworks.

To make history, Jean-Claude Biver has symbolically chosen the famous Hublot Bigger Bang All Black Tourbillon Chronograph “Special piece”, a historic timepiece because of the major role it played in paving the way for today’s new trends, a watch that has made watchmaking history, a symbol of success, a source of inspiration that has made it Jean-Claude Biver’s favorite watch for over a quarter of a century.

45 years of an extraordinary career. From the early years at Audemars Piguet, the amazing Blancpain adventure, the
collaboration with Nicolas Hayek, Omega, then the dazzling development of Hublot, the presidency of the watchmaking division of the French group LVMH, the rejuvenation of TAG Heuer, the re-launch of Zenith, the creation of the first Swiss luxury connected watch with Google and Intel, or his commitment against racism during the EURO 2008 and the Charity Water campaign with Depeche Mode to name but a few, not forgetting his swiss mountain cheese… Jean-Claude Biver is a living legend in the watch industry, characterized by his commitment to the Swiss watch industry, his spirit of daring and entrepreneurship, with passion.

Jean-Claude Biver and Carlos Moreira, CEO of WISeKey, launched 12 years ago at BaselWorld the first digital
certification of a luxury watch. They are now repeating this technology breakthrough with the use of Digital identification combined with NFT to use the existing digital certificate of authenticity on the Hublot watch and checking and creation of a Digital Twin with its corresponded Non-Fungible Token.

WISeKey, was the first company in the world to use dual factor authentication combined with blockchain technology to secure luxury watches, currently protects over 2.5 million luxury watches. Since 2010, WISeKey has collaborated with manufactures of luxury watches deploying this unique technology to integrate semiconductors tags powered with its VaultIC154 NFC secure element and provide brands with the ability of issuing, modifying, and checking of a digital certificate of authenticity.
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These tags, when placed on any product and tapped by an NFC phone, securely authenticate, and track the product much like an embedded ePassport and confirm the identity of the product on the blockchain ledger. This technology has received a patent in the USA.

According to watchpro, WISeKey successfully launched this week its WISe.Art, a digital certificate of authenticity, a NFT for art pieces that will live forever on the blockchain, unchanged and unchallengeable, as proof of the buyer’s ownership.

WISeKey says the announcement generated strong interest from the luxury and art community and WISe.ART is now operation using OpenSea NFT MarketPlace.

@Hublot Bigger Bang All Black Tourbillon Chronograph “Special piece” for NFT (Non Fungible Token) watch auction by @wisekey

The luxury to forget your wallet and pay securely with only your watch

March 22, 2016March 21, 2016 by Editorial Team

BVLGARI is unlocking the future with the updated Diagono Magn@sium – the first-ever “intelligent mechanical luxury watch.”

Italian luxury house Bulgari opened Baselworld 2016 presenting a new world record with Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater and introducing Serpenti Incantati Tourbillon Lumière, the new expression of the brand’s sign and symbol highlighting the blend of Haute Joaillerie.

At Baselworld, Bulgari, MasterCard and WISeKey announced also that MasterCard contactless payment capability will be embedded within the first-ever “intelligent mechanical luxury watch” – the Bulgari Diagono Magn@sium. This major innovation comes one year after the presentation at Baselworld 2015 of the innovative luxury watch, which Bulgari has now fully developed and industrialized for a potential market introduction before the end of the year.

Utilizing WISeKey cyber security technology, the global alliance between Bulgari and MasterCard will enable Bulgari Diagono Magn@sium “intelligent” watch owners to make payments securely at the more than four million retail locations in 74 countries globally that accept MasterCard contactless transactions.

The payment capability complements the secure access functions being embedded in the Diagono Magn@sium powered by WiseKey’s cyber security technology. The secure access functions allow watch owners to unlock the BVLGARI Vault Application, which provides a unique user experience that protects personal digital
assets encrypted on consumer smartphones or tablets by storing encrypted replicas of them in a secure cloud buried in a Swiss military bunker, somewhere in the Alps. Additional secure access functions planned by Bulgari include the ability to open select automobile doors, Bulgari hotel doors and other participating
partners’ products.

“We believe that technology and craftsmanship can be artfully combined to deliver a valuable and unique benefit to our clients without compromising the integrity of a timeless mechanical luxury watch. With the new Bulgari Magn@sium, our clients will have the luxury to forget their wallet and pay securely with only their Bulgari watch. This is extraordinary and part of the luxury experience,” commented Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of the BVLGARI Group.

Octo Ultranero, the iconic Octo watch boldly reinvented into a modern black-clad interpretation.

The splendid Serpenti Incantati Tourbillon Lumière, a bewitching interpretation celebrating the union of Swiss haute horlogerie and Italian design.

Serpenti Spiga: the fresh and youthful charm of the Bulgari’s snake in black high-tech ceramic and pink gold.

Serpenti Tubogas five-coil: a bracelet, an adornment that becomes a second skin.

Piccola LVCEA, the everyday mini-jewelry watch. Its pink gold accents glimmer with the sunlight of Rome.

Poetic and playing with the refinement of the colored stones and watchmaking complications, the new Divas’ Dream with Jumping hours and Retrograde minutes, brings a fresh look at the feminine time reading.

Diagono “E” Magnesium – the first luxury watch-vault reducing the cyber risks

July 22, 2015 by Editorial Team

“Connected” timepieces are an open gate to hacking or phishing. Bulgari aims to drastically reduce the cyber risks when using the Internet with the enhanced Diagono “E” Magnesium watch. Bulgari bolds the “e” in Magnesium to differentiate the concept piece from the standard Magnesium watches, which were among Bulgari’s new product introductions at Baselworld 2015 fair.

Bulgari and WISeKey, a Swiss firm that specializes in digital security and data storage, announced a broadening of their partnership launched at BaselWorld 2015 with the announcement of the Intelligent Watch Diagono “E” Magnesium concept. The timepiece is the first wrist- vault, an intelligent luxury watch delivering full security storage for the owner’s digital data.

“Being a jeweler we always been have obsessed by security. So from that jewelry obsession for security we came to the conclusion that the ultimate benefit for our consumer in his daily life was beside having a beautiful object on his wrist, a true Swiss watch, to have also the ultimate data protection which no one never thought about,” commented Jean-Christophe Babin, Bulgari’s CEO.

The watch features virtually limitless applications, a number of verticals such as access control, payments, health services, Bulgari Hotel check-in, car activation and so on.

Diagono “E” Magnesium intelligent watch is powered by the self-winding manufacture caliber Solotempo (with a 28,800-vph frequency and a 42-hour power reserve), with the only electronic components being a cryptographic system embedded into the watch and equipped with WISeKey’s NFCTrusted (Encrypted Near Field Communication) technology. This enables the watch to transmit a digital certificate to the “Bulgari Vault,” an app that the owner downloads and sets up on
his iOs or Android smartphone (with its own NFC chip). The owner then simply places the watch near the phone to activate and unlock the electronic vault and begin storing and using data. As soon as data is entered into the app, it is immediately encrypted with WISeKey’s highly secure technology, so that only the wearer of the watch can have access and read them. Some of the uses for the technology would include using the watch to store and access pass codes, encrypted cloud data, make secure payments, activate an alarm system and video surveillance remotely, open car doors, access transport tickets, and various other possibilities.

“The objective of this new partnership is to reinforce the Cyber Security client ecosystem preparing Bulgari customers to the arrival of the Diagono “E” Magnesium intelligent watch and the Bulgari Vault app due early 2016,” explained Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO WISeKey. “It will allow Bulgari customers to use the watch as an encrypted asymmetric key to securely backup their data online using WISeKey CyberSecurity technologies and data storage on Swiss Alps military bunkers,” added Moreira.