From October 13, 2020, each new Breitling watch includes a private and unique digital passport. Watch owners can simply scan their electronic guarantee card with their smartphone camera to automatically download the private, encrypted digital wallet, which safely stores the digital passport. This passport contains every detail of the owner’s watch, including its serial number, and the product is time-stamped with the activation date of its digital warranty and its purchase. Accessible only through the digital wallet, this passport includes a transfer feature that allows the owner to prove the watch’s authenticity and assess its ownership, as well as an option to transfer the watch if the current owner desires.
This innovative new feature enhances watch ownership, as owners now no longer need to present a physical certificate of authenticity for their Breitling watches. Furthermore, watch owners can safely and securely transfer this certificate in case of resale. With this blockchain-based digital passport, collectors no longer need to retain paper documents, and instead can freely consult with Breitling more efficiently and anonymously thanks to an embedded chat feature.
Through this novel way of proving ownership of luxury watches through digital means, Breitling’s customers can, for the first time, experience a new way to collect watches. Repairs are registered in the certificate with a timestamp in the blockchain, upcoming insurance services are more reactive to issues like loss or theft, and resale warranties enhance the brand experience.
“The successful launch of the Top Time last March underlined how many benefits Breitling owners could get through a sustained relationship with the brand," exlains Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling. "This is why, as of today, we are offering the Breitling digital passport with every new Breitling watch without exception! By offering a comprehensive range of innovative services for their watches, we are concretely providing our clients with the inclusivity that characterizes our belief and approach at Breitling. Stay tuned as we are about to announce another significant change for our clients, again increasing the value of our watches.”
“Here, we are truly making an industry change: we are empowering the customer not only through the watch on their wrist, but also with a digital passport in a secured digital wallet, always providing tailored suggestions throughout the ownership experience," says Antonio Carriero, Chief Digital and Technology Officer of Breitling. "Customer engagement is at the heart of everything we do, so it goes without saying that we will continue to offer additional services to Breitling owners with absolute security and a complete respect for privacy. This is truly what brand innovation should be in 2020: transforming the relationship with our customers.”
“Our ambition is to give Breitling the opportunity to develop its own service economy and to transform their customer relationships by proposing a more circular, transparent model for their products," says, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, co-founder and CEO of Arianee."The fact that Arianee’s protocol is completely decentralized gives us the ability to envision the emergence of an open-source technology that is free and available to its users, avoiding all of the negative impacts that larger, more centralized systems have on our daily lives.”
