Jean-Claude Biver and the Swiss company WISeKey are leading the way, announcing the first NFT auction in the luxury watch space. 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. 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 marked Hublot 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.

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. The auction will take place on March 31, 2021 at 4:00 pm Geneva Time on the leading Open.Sea NFT MarketPlace, which is already active in the sale of artworks.

With 45 years of an extraordinary career in the watch industry, all the way 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, and his commitment against racism during the EURO2008 and the Charity Water campaign with Depeche Mode just to name a few —not forgetting his swiss mountain cheese— Mr. 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.

"This watch has brought me so much success and happiness. It is one of the most important watches in my private collection. It has not only inspired me professionally but has also brought me so much personally” says Mr. Jean-Claude Biver.

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. Today, they go again together for a new breakthrough linking watchmaking and new technologies with the use of digital identification combined with NFT to use the existing digital certificate of authenticity on the watch with the creation of a digital twin with corresponding NFT.

“I am delighted to join Biver again in demonstrating how latest technologies can disrupt an entire industry such as the luxury watch industry. WISeKey is launching this first ever luxury watch NFT auction to demonstrate its technology and encourage luxury watch brands to start using it to auction their high-end watches through WIS.Watch NFTs. We launched two weeks ago a 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. This announcement generated strong interest from the luxury and art community “said Carlos Moreira.

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 a storage device comprising of a digital certificate of authenticity

• checking, when required, the validity of the digital certificate of authenticity

• modifying, when required, the status of validity of the digital certificate of authenticity.

Dematerialization and creation of a Digital Twin with its corresponded Non-Fungible Token.

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.

For more info on WISeKey click here. Image of Mr. Jean-Claude Biver from FHH Journal.