NIX time
When it comes to blockchain, luxury watch, jewelry and leather brands are doubling down on utility, leveraging the technology to make a real impact on their businesses.
A luxury fintech providing such solutions. Waltk. 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 ownership. Triple factor authentication.
It works directly and through Web3 protocols including the Hedera distributed ledger. Working with insurtech firm Avata, it provides certificates of ownership and integrated insurance protection at both the B2B and B2C levels. The premium is paid by the partner brand rather than the buyer with a higher cost ‘like for like’ or store credit instead of traditional payment. It’s a “new revenue stream for brands,” says Voltak co-founder and Meta alum Pietro Novelli of the closed-loop setup.
Such on-chain correlation of ownership and insurance creates “increased customer loyalty and new customer acquisition as well as customer retention,” Novelli says. “When ownership is transferred to the secondary market, the insurance policy travels with it.”
After a proof-of-concept with luxury hard-hitters like Burberry, Vaultik expanded into the verticals of luxury watches, gemstones and fine jewelry, leather goods, and even furniture, focusing on both primary and secondary markets. has announced the first wave of client partnerships. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
While 2024 will bring the announcement of at least one major global fashion player, the first projects to emerge are with small to medium-sized concerns.
“They’re more agile when it comes to implementation,” Novelli told me. “They’re changing very quickly because I can talk directly to the CEO of the company.” They also offer a good way to demonstrate that the technology can scale, he added.
Maximizing business impact and addressing the industry’s biggest challenges are key areas of focus, along with theft, counterfeit detection and sustainability.
A luxury timepiece
A key use case for Voltaic’s technology is the luxury watch market. It is partnering with a London-based startup. NIX time Who customizes watches by luxury brands like Rolex — stripping back the detail on the dial or molding the internal mechanics.
For NIX, Vaultik is providing a digital product passport with integrated insurance. Passports contain the original serial number of each watch from which they were sourced, as well as an additional warranty, as well as authentication by established London dealers.
According to Jess O’Brien, founder of NIX, the technology addresses a major client challenge – the epidemic of luxury watch theft in major cities. Novelli himself was a victim last year and revealed on Ashley McDonnell’s Tech Powered Luxury Podcast That experience prompted him to add an insurance element to his product.
BBC journalist Tir Dhandi has recently made a documentary. Hunting for Rolex Reapers Exposing the methods of organized gangs in London where watches worth more than $63 million were stolen in 2022, 3,190 in the first six months of 2023, according to data collected by the Watch Register and shared with the fraudster. Theft was reported.
Dhandi hopes his film will raise awareness about the issue. “If you’re walking around the streets wearing an expensive watch, there’s always going to be a risk,” he told me, “so if you have an expensive watch, you can be a little more vigilant.”
O’Brien agrees. “Often people are too afraid to use their more expensive pieces and go out wearing an Apple Watch,” he told me. “The processes involved in traditional insurance policies may be quite antiquated, but they can be supported and enhanced by technologies such as blockchain, giving our clients the opportunity to wear and enjoy their pieces. ”
In the future, O’Brien is looking to develop a partnership with Vaultik, to make the client experience “more exciting” through NFTs.
Secondary market
Blockchain has significant implications when it comes to the secondary market and Vaultik has created an AI-powered algorithm that influences real-time prices of luxury assets for resale.
It is entering the secondary market powering certificates of ownership and authenticity for this central London luxury consignment store. Lux dressing. This feature combines anti-damage insurance with repairs carried out by specialist partners.
“We believe luxury is timeless,” French entrepreneur and founder of Luxe Dressing Lena Kaduri told me, adding that the partnership “represents the evolution of luxury where beauty meets innovation.”
By integrating technology into its business model it is able to provide an “unparalleled experience in the consignment space,” she says, “by underpinning each unique find in our collection with a digital promise of authenticity.”
Fine jewelry
Transparency of provenance is important where fine jewelry is concerned.
Veteran jeweler Amedeo Scognamiglio drops a sell-out NFT collection with Exclusible in 2022, turning his namesake brand’s whimsical cameos into digital collectibles. He is now also partnering with Vaultik for insurance for both the digital product Passport and his name. Amedio Brand and fine jewelry brand Faraone Mennella. Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez are fans respectively.
The partnership addresses the need to secure the authenticity and quality of her pieces, she told me—“the ability to monitor the entire lifecycle of our jewelry so that its integrity and authenticity are never questioned. ” For him, it is the insurance element integrated into the digital product passport that represents the “real game changer”.
As for the blockchain element, it provides a new guarantee of security for its brands’ affluent international clientele, he added. “It unequivocally records the authenticity of our products in both the primary market and resale.”
Furniture and leather goods
Italian designer furniture and custom upholstery brand Superevo works with the patented material Polimex—developed in-house. Superevo is using Vaultik’s technology to document its product lifecycle on the blockchain, increasing transparency and assuring its customers of their authenticity and uniqueness.
Information will be accessible through NFC chips while e-certificates will also include insurance for certain products. Likewise sustainability-minded leather goods outfit Ghisò. The boutique direct-to-consumer brand sources all of its ingredients within an 8km radius of its factory in the Tuscan region of Italy.
The wider ecosystem
Of course, other more established blockchain platforms are already operating in the space—most notably the Ora Blockchain Consortium and the Ariane Protocol.
However, as Novelli asserts, Valtac’s integrated insurance component is a key differentiator, so he sees such platforms as potential partners rather than competitors. “We can all play a part in the wider ecosystem,” he says.
Credit : www.forbes.com
