WISeKey $WKEY announces the first ever luxury NFT auction with a Jean-Claude Biver Hublot Big Bang "Standard" watch that has served Hublot as a reference for all the future Tourbillon parts and complicated watches

Auction starts on March 31, 2021 at 4:00pm CET
Visit OpenSea NFT MarketPlace at
https://opensea.io/assets/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e/46278206053616762088099727979929024745946993553888345078461487398389582659585

Jean-Claude Biver and Carlos Moreira will launch the NFT auction and will debate on the repercussions of NFT for the luxury watch industry during a fireside chat:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_z9XPb67_QfyXqXgT0CRQ1w

 

Geneva, Switzerland – March 29, 2021 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a Swiss based cyber security, IoT, AI platform company, today announced that it will auction the first ever secure luxury NFT watch on March 31, 2021, using Open.Sea NFT MarketPlace.

The NFT auction will feature the Hublot Big Bang "Standard" watch, which has been with Jean-Claude Biver since the end of 2005, and has served Hublot as a reference for all the future Tourbillon parts and complicated watches.  The design of this unique watch is expressed by the absence of a real dial and the absence of color. In fact, it is the movement, which, with its finish and functional design, replaces and plays the role of the dial. The Hublot Bigger Bang has also served as a reference for the so-called "skeleton" watches where the dial is the movement or the mechanism.  The watch features a "stealth" "mono colore" style thanks to the micro-blasted black ceramic and the brushed / polished finish of the constituent parts of the movement.  This watch has been with Jean- Claude for more than a quarter of a century.

“This watch has brought so much success and happiness. In conclusion this is one of the most important watches of my amazing private collection. A masterpiece that not only inspired me professionally but also personally,” said Jean-Claude Biver.

Jean-Claude Biver is a legend in the watch industry previously serving as the chief executive officer of Hublot and TAG Heuer. From 2014, he was the president of LVMH's watchmaking division until his retirement in 2018, after 43 years in the industry.  Mr. Biver was also successful in rejuvenating the Blancpain and Omega brands, both currently owned by Swatch Group.  Mr. Biver is also known for production of his own exclusive cheese.

Mr. Biver's leadership in the Swiss watch industry has been credited as “single handedly saving the industry from the quartz movement.” In 1980, even prestigious Swiss watch brands had approximately 70% quartz movements in their collection; since then, the Swiss watch industry has staged a remarkable recovery, with 2008 exports valued at CHF17 billion.

Mr. Biver was also the originator of the first TAG Heuer’s Connected Swiss made watch which combines Android Wear functionalities with Swiss watchmaking excellence.  This timepiece is the ultimate embodiment of TAG Heuer’s in cooperation with technology behemoths Google and Intel to develop a smartwatch that can compete with the new Apple Watch.


Mr. Biver and Mr. Moreira launched 12 years ago at BaselWorld, the first digital certification of a luxury watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIWx_Z6JdJA. They are now repeating this technology breakthrough with the use of Digital Identification combined with NFT to use the existing digital certificate of authenticity on the Hublot watch and creating a Digital Twin with its corresponding NFT.

“I am delighted to join JC Biver again in demonstrating how latest technologies can disrupt an entire industry such as the luxury watch industry. WISeKey is launching this first ever luxury watch NFT auction to demonstrate its technology and encourage luxury watch brands to start using it to auction their high-end watches through WIS.Watch NFTs.  Two weeks ago, we launched WISe.Art, a digital certificate of authenticity, a NFT for art pieces that will live forever on the blockchain, unchanged and unchallengeable, as proof of the buyer’s ownership. This announcement generated strong interest from the luxury and art community,” said Carlos Moreira.

WISeKey, was the first company in the world to use dual factor authentication combined with blockchain technology to secure luxury watches, currently protects over 2.5 million luxury watches. Since 2010, WISeKey has collaborated with manufactures of luxury watches deploying this unique technology to integrate semiconductors tags powered with its VaultIC154 NFC secure element and provide brands with the ability of:

• issuing a storage device comprising of a digital certificate of authenticity
• checking, when required, the validity of the digital certificate of authenticity
• modifying, when required, the status of validity of the digital certificate of authenticity.

Dematerialization and creation of a Digital Twin with its corresponded NFT: these tags, when placed on any product and tapped by an NFC phone, securely authenticate, and track the product much like an embedded ePassport and confirm the identity of the product on the blockchain ledger. This technology has received a patent in the USA http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=8&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=wisekey&OS=wisekey&RS=wisekey.  

About WISeKey
WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.).  WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:
WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact:  Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com        
WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact:  Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com

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