ORIGYN Luxury ORIGYN x WatchBox
ORIGYN Foundation Partners with WatchBox To Bring Pre-Owned Luxury Timepieces into A New Era
ORIGYN, the Swiss foundation dedicated to identifying, authenticating, and unlocking the powers of ownership for objects of value, has today announced a partnership with WatchBox, the global leader in collectible luxury timepieces.
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.
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 $29 to $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.
“Discerning collectors have long trusted WatchBox to purchase authentic, collectible watches, and our partnership with ORIGYN will extend this proof of authenticity to the blockchain,” said Justin Reis, CEO of WatchBox. “We are excited to provide our clients and community with access to a web3 authenticity certificate, exclusive blockchain native content and services, and the ability to digitally trade watches through our partnership with ORIGYN.”
ORIGYN is the largest project on the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) developed by The DFINITY Foundation, which is one of the fastest growing blockchains globally. 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.
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 $2 billion annually to counterfeits, and over 40 million counterfeit luxury watches are produced and sold annually. Over 37% of luxury end-consumers in France have bought a counterfeit product without knowing it. This issue can cause uncertainty in the second-hand market with many would-be buyers fearful of being duped. This leads to an illiquid market in addition to diminishing consumer loyalty and brand equity. Since its 2017 founding, WatchBox has been a trusted destination for watches with guaranteed authenticity, and will be a trusted node in the ORIGYN network. 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.
The global leader in collectible watches, WatchBox has generated over $1B in revenue and has raised $260 million from investors, including Michael Jordan, Milwaukee Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, Phoenix Suns stars Chris Paul and Devin Booker, Bill Ackman and more.
ORIGYN recently raised $20 million and is backed by Table Management, Polychain Capital, Bali Venture Partners, Vectr Ventures, Carter Reum, Div Turakhia, Paris Hilton and more. The foundation’s utility token, OGY, is set to become publicly tradable in the second quarter of 2022.
