Imagine the founder of venerable auction house Christie’s pondering how to prove the provenance of artworks and other luxuries when it held its first sale in 1766.
Without trust, the business would have been dead by 1767.
Establishing trust is equally important today, which is why Christie’s is piloting the use of incorruptible digital certificates, recorded forever on the blockchain, to store details of a multi-million dollar Rolex Daytona that goes under the old fashioned hammer at next week’s Rare Watches sale in Geneva next week.
The experimental lot is a Rolex Daytona Lemon (ref. 626) in 18ct gold, one of only three known to exist, which goes to sale with an estimate of CHF 3-5 million.
Watch Certificate is a title deed made un-forgeable by the blockchain. Once the auction is over, it will then be carefully assigned along with the Daytona to its new owner.
“The use of Watch Certificate for important collector’s watches is an added value, both for the current owner and for the future buyer. It allows total transparency thanks to the expertise of an independent third party. This is exactly what the new generation of collectors wants,” says Rémi Guillemin, Head of Watches and Wristwatches Department at Christie’s Geneva.
“For the auction house, Watch Certificate offers an easy way to create and manage their certified lot data, once and for all. With both the guarantee of transparency by a trusted third party and the most advanced certificate on the market, buyers can now enjoy their watches with complete peace of mind.” says Guillaume Kuntz, co-founder of Watch Certificate.
Watch Certificate bestows a number of benefits on the owner of the watch. They can:
- Request the update of the value of the watch
- Transfer the property in case of sale
- Obtain assistance in the event of theft (blacklisting and sharing of serial numbers with the watch brand, auction houses and online resale platforms)
- Take out additional insurance against theft with aggression, anywhere in the world because Watch Certificate is recognized by insurance companies and authorities. watch.
