Just Date personalized by NIX Time which uses Vaultik’s blockchain technology for its digital … (+)
When it comes to blockchain, luxury watch, jewelry and leather brands are doubling down, leveraging the technology to make a real impact on their businesses.
One of the providers of such solutions is luxury fintech Vaultik. The platform combines digital product passports with certificates of ownership and on-chain insurance (typically against theft, loss and damage), linking ownership and authenticity through its proprietary system. three-factor authentication.
It works both directly and through blockchain protocols, including Switzerland-based Hedera. Together with insurance company Avata, it provides certificates of ownership and integrated insurance protection at the B2B and B2C levels. Premiums are paid by the partner brand rather than the buyer, with a more cost-effective in-store or price-matched credit replacing traditional payment. This represents “a new revenue stream for brands,” Pietro Novelli, co-founder of Vaultik and formerly of Meta, says of the closed-loop setup.
Such a chain correlation between ownership and insurance generates “increased customer loyalty and increased customer retention alongside new customer acquisition,” says Novelli. “When the property is transferred to the secondary market, the insurance policy travels with it.”
Following proofs of concept with luxury heavyweights like Burberry, Vaultik has announced its first wave of client partnerships spanning the verticals of luxury watches, gems and fine jewelry, leather goods and even furniture, focusing on both primary and secondary markets, the latter leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)
While 2024 will see the announcement of at least one major player in global fashion, the first projects to come to fruition are those of small and medium-sized businesses.
“They are more agile when it comes to implementation,” Novelli told me. “They’re the ones who convert very quickly because I can talk directly to the CEO of the company.” He added that it also represents a good way to demonstrate that the technology can evolve.
Maximizing business impact and tackling some of the industry’s biggest challenges are key areas alongside theft, counterfeit tracing and sustainability.
Luxury watches
An important use case for Vaultik’s technology is the luxury watch market. He joins forces with the London start-up NIX time which personalizes watches from established luxury brands like Rolex, removing details from the dials or skeletonizing the interior mechanics.
For NIX, Vaultik powers digital product passports with built-in assurance. The passports also feature the original serial number of each watch, as well as authentication via the established London dealers from which they were sourced, as well as an additional guarantee.
The technology addresses a major challenge facing customers: the epidemic of luxury watch theft plaguing major cities, according to NIX founder Jess O’Brien. Novelli himself was a victim last year and revealed it on Tech Powered Luxury Podcast by Ashley McDonnell that this experience encouraged him to integrate the element of insurance into his product.
BBC journalist Tir Dhondy recently made the documentary Hunting for Rolex Rippers revealing the modus operandi of organized gangs in London where, according to data collected by The Watch Register and shared with Dhondy, more than $63 million worth of watches were stolen in 2022, with 3,190 reported stolen in the first six month of 2023.
Dhondy hopes his film will raise awareness about this issue. “There will always be a risk if you wear an expensive watch while walking down the street,” she told me, “so if you own an expensive watch, you can be a little more careful.”
A Daytona customized by NIX Time.
O’Brien agrees. “Often people are too afraid to use their most expensive pieces and end up walking out with an Apple Watch,” she told me. “The processes involved in traditional insurance policies can be quite archaic, but to the extent that they can be supported and enhanced by technologies like blockchain, it gives our customers the ability to wear and enjoy their pieces. »
In the future, O’Brien plans to evolve the partnership with Vaultik, improving the customer experience through NFTs to make it “more exciting.”
The secondary market
Blockchain has significant implications when it comes to the secondary market and Vaultik has built an AI-based algorithm affecting real-time valuations of luxury assets intended for resale.
It enters the secondary market by providing certificates of ownership and authenticity for a luxury store in central London. Luxury dressing. These have built-in damage insurance with repairs carried out by specialist partners.
“We believe luxury is timeless,” French entrepreneur and founder of Luxe Dressing Leina Kaddouri told me, adding that the partnership represents “the evolution of luxury where elegance meets innovation.”
By integrating technology into its business model, it is able to offer an “unparalleled experience in consignment,” she says, “anchoring each unique find in our collection with a digital promise of authenticity.”
Jewelry
Transparency of provenance is important when it comes to fine jewelry.
Veteran jeweler Amedeo Scognamiglio launched a sold-out NFT collection with Exclusible in 2022, turning his namesake brand’s whimsical cameos into digital collectibles. It now also partners with Vaultik for digital product passports and namesake insurance. Amédée brand and fine jewelry brand Faraone Mennella. Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez are fans respectively.
The partnership responds to the need to guarantee the provenance and quality of its pieces, he told me: “the ability to monitor the entire life cycle of our jewelry so that their integrity and originality cannot never be called into question.” For him, it is the insurance element integrated into digital product passports that is “a real game changer”.
As for the blockchain element, it offers a new guarantee of security for the rich international clientele of its brands, he added. “It immutably records the authenticity of our products both for the primary market and for resale.”
Furniture And Leather Goods
Italian designer furniture and bespoke upholstery brand Superevo works with the patented Polimex material, developed in-house. Superevo uses Vaultik technology to document the lifecycle of its products on the blockchain, to improve transparency and assure its customers of provenance and uniqueness.
The information will be accessible via NFC chips while the electronic certificates will also include insurance on certain products. Likewise, the Ghisò sustainable leather goods outfit. The direct-to-consumer boutique brand sources all of its materials within a 5-mile radius of its factory in Italy’s Tuscany region.
The broader ecosystem
Of course, other more established blockchain platforms are already operating in the space, the most prolific being Aura Blockchain Consortium and the Arianee protocol.
However, as Novelli argues, Vaultik’s built-in insurance component is an important differentiator, which is why it views these platforms as potential partners rather than competitors. “We can all play our part in the broader ecosystem,” he says.
