Ulysse Nardin becomes the first watchmaker to offer a secured warranty certificate anchored in the blockchain
January 23, 2020: Watchmaker Ulysse Nardin, accompanied by Kering’s Innovation team, shows its desire to be pioneers of major technological changes which enhance the customer experience. Dedicated to providing cutting-edge technology service and significantly improving its customers’ user experience, Ulysse Nardin is the first luxury manufacturer to deploy blockchain certification to all its collections.
Blockchain technology can be used to store and transmit information or transactions. It is a global digital database shared among multiple users that can, using a cryptographic system, verify the validity of information, add data and record a transaction. Ulysse Nardin’s approach used here is to store the “digital signature” of all PDF warranty certificates in the form of a “hash” – i.e. an encrypted string of characters – on the Bitcoin blockchain. A digital document, like a warranty certificate in this case, when protected on the blockchain, becomes tamper-proof. The registers of “hashes” are publicly accessible, anywhere in the world, at any time, thereby removing the risk of losing, forgetting or falsification of physical warranty cards, traditionally provided with the watch at the time of purchase.
Another advantage is that this certificate becomes extremely useful for after-sales service (a reliable transaction history) or when it is offered as a gift or resold (used market). The physical guarantee card will continue to exist, since thanks to its “bubble tag”, customers will be able to extend the watch warranty to 5 years and thus directly generate their online blockchain warranty certificate essentially. When a customer buys an Ulysse Nardin watch, they must enter it on the Ulysse Nardin website using the physical “proof tag” warranty card. They will then receive a personalized digital certificate on their name in a PDF format containing all the data and information about the purchased product. The signature of this warranty document is anchored in the blockchain via its “hash”, i.e. the document’s digital fingerprint.
Verifying the validity of Ulysse Nardin warranty certificates will be possible directly on the Bitcoin blockchain or a checker. Another option for the customer is a checker widget hosted directly on the Ulysse Nardin’s website. By a simple “drag and drop”, the link between the warranty certificate and the blockchain is simplified. For its development, Ulysse Nardin and Kering chose the Breton start-up “Woleet”.
The blockchain technology, which is being tried out in the watchmaking the industry mostly as an “optional service,” is being deployed at Ulysse Nardin systematically, not just on a single product, but on all of its ranges.
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