ORIGYN and WatchBox will collaborate to produce Utility NFTs, which enables the ownership of luxury watches to become digitally tradable, efficiently unlocking secondary market liquidity.
Buyers of these watches, with their corresponding NFTs, will be able to fully trust in the watch’s authenticity, and even trade the digital ownership of the watch. This makes secondary market trading faster and safer for all parties involved. These NFTs also tackle the issue of counterfeit watches by acting as blockchain-based certificates of authenticity for luxury watches purchased on WatchBox’s platform.
Watches certified as authentic by WatchBox will be issued a digital certificate on the ORIGYN platform that can be validated through the biometrics of the watch itself, using advanced computer imaging and artificial intelligence.
This partnership will solve the problem of genuine luxury goods being swapped with counterfeits by constantly controlling the authenticity during its overall lifespan. The Swiss watch industry alone loses USD 2 billion annually to counterfeits, and over 40 million counterfeit luxury watches are produced and sold annually.
Computer vision and artificial intelligence at the service of authenticity
Having recently raised USD 20 million, Neuchâtel-based ORIGYN uses computer vision, machine learning and decentralized technology to certify authenticated objects. ORIGYN’s computer vision and artificial intelligence can pick up details the human eye can’t see, and each watch is given a unique biometric fingerprint from this process. Once this unique biometric fingerprint has been created, an NFT that contains all of this information is minted.
Daniel Haudenschild, CEO of ORIGYN Enterprise, said : “Once an object has a guaranteed certificate, the NFT becomes highly tradable. Pushed by consumer trends like reuse and upcycling, the secondary market in luxury watches has exploded and is expected to reach USD 29 to USD 32 billion by 2025. Authentication NFTs will make secondary market trading faster and safer for buyers and sellers alike. WatchBox is a leader in collectible watches that are guaranteed to be authentic and collector quality, and we are pleased to work with them to provide a digital guarantee of their services.”
ORIGYN’s utility NFTs will provide consumers with guaranteed digital certificates of authenticity for luxury watches purchased on WatchBox’s platform and access to a suite of services such as insurance, digital provenance, concierge service, and access to exclusive communities. ORIGYN’s utility NFTs will be rolled out to WatchBox consumers in the summer of 2022.
