Luxury watchmaker sets the pace with Web3 tech

The luxury watch industry may not be known for driving digital innovation, but for Swiss brand H. Moser & Cie., incorporating emerging technologies like non-fungible tokens and virtual reality into its product offerings is a natural fit.

Starting in 2021, leaders at H. Moser & Cie. were interested to explore how Web3 technologies may support customers and drive engagement. The company eventually developed what it calls the Genesis project, which melds the physical and digital realms into a single product. This is a complete ecosystem that offers blockchain product authentication for enhanced multilevel security and transparency, exclusive privileges enabled by digital asset ownership, and a metaverse space intended to showcase products to customers.

Buyers receive a physical watch that is augmented with a digital product passport (DPP) and several nonfungible tokens (NFTs) enabling exclusive brand experiences. The DPP stores information about the journey of the watch, including when it was produced, where it was sold, who owned it, and when it was serviced, all key factors that play into resale value. Such sensitive information is stored on a private blockchain, accessible only to the verified owner of the watch. The watch also comes with digital art in the form of an NFT, unique to each customer, which again contributes to resale value.

Ownership of the watch also releases an NFT to customers that unlocks access to a virtual metaverse space. Designed as a modern, minimalist Swiss chalet that opens the door to the imaginative world of the brand, this dedicated space has hosted the press conferences organized to launch the Genesis project. Finally, another NFT represents the insurance coverage of both physical and digital watch—making it the first-ever hybrid insurance product in the market.

Claire Tellenbach, director of international marketing and leader of the Genesis project, notes H. Moser & Cie.’s history of innovation: Over its 200 years of business, the company has developed new production methods and other innovations in watchmaking. Extending that mindset to incorporate new digital technologies makes sense.

“The whole thing was a learning process,” Tellenbach says. “But introducing the brand to new customers was a major part of the goal. We love developing new technologies and taking on new challenges to reach new audiences.”¹

When H. Moser & Cie. began developing the Genesis project, NFTs were still fairly new. Tellenbach worked with external technology partners to develop the technical backbone, and even these partners experimented rigorously before figuring out exactly how best to implement the technology. In fact, Tellenbach says she personally spent a lot of time researching Web3 technologies. Support from H. Moser & Cie.’s CEO also played a key role in getting the project off the ground.

Being able to record information about the watch through the DPP and NFTs and store that information on a blockchain is one of the particularly valuable aspects of the project, Tellenbach says. In the past few years, the secondary market for luxury watches has exploded. By attaching a DPP and NFTs to the Genesis project watch, buyers can create an immutable record of authenticity. Should they decide to sell the watch on the secondary market later, this may help it hold its value.

Delivering this kind of value to customers was at the heart of the project. When the H. Moser & Cie. team first began exploring the idea of wrapping Web3 features around a new watch, NFTs were rapidly growing in popularity, but most applications did not have practical use. NFT-backed digital art was becoming popular and was prominent on social media, but it lacked tangible value for buyers. Tellenbach says the team deliberately avoided using the technology until it could identify a clear reason.

“An NFT drop for the sake of an NFT drop is something we didn’t want to do,” she says. “It had to have an actual function that the customers would find valuable.”

H. Moser & Cie. is now exploring deploying this functionality to more watches in its collection. Tellenbach says the company learned a lot through the Genesis project and is now in a good place to respond to customer demands.

“It shows that we are ahead of the pack, putting the needs of the customer in the center, and always trying to find the best solution for them,” Tellenbach says. “Right now it’s Web3, but in the future it might be something else. The beauty of embracing new possibilities is that you can always do something better.”

This large-scale, multilayered project opens the horizon for future developments.