19 November 2020

HUBLOT e-warranty

The digitalisation of the warranty

card or how each watch becomes its
own certificate

The authenticity of Hublot watches is

guaranteed by a visual recognition of
the micro-structure of their materials.
With the HUBLOT e-warranty,
Hublot is launching a completely
digital warranty stored in the AURA
blockchain.
 

Ricardo Guadalupe
CEO of Hublot

 With the Hublot e-warranty, Hublot

& KerQuest are fusing materials and
ground-breaking algorithmics to
revolutionise the user experience.
The watch is thus authenticated by
the recognition of the specificity of
its materials. A first in the fight
against counterfeiting.
 
Gone are the days of warranty cards
and authenticity certificates; with its
new Hublot e-warranty protection
and warranty system, the
watchmaking Manufacture is
simplifying the tracking and tracing
of its watches, from their
manufacture through to customers,
via points of sale. Faithful to its
motto “Be first, unique, and
different”, the watchmaker, with the
Hublot e-warranty, has created a
technological first in which the
watch itself becomes the key to open
up a new world of services. As well as
facilitating use for points of sale,
customers and customs alike, Hublot
is improving the prevention of
counterfeiting and theft. Simple, easy
and effective!
 
The watchmaker has been working
on the development of algorithms in
partnership with the company
KerQuest since 2017. The goal was to
develop a technology that relied on
the very recognition of the specificity
of the watch, namely the
microstructure of the materials that
make it up. This way of working
seemed obvious to the master of the
Art of Fusion, which has been using
materials and their fusion to
differentiate itself for 40 years. As an
additional challenge, although the
recognition of a material in the
broadest sense has been studied for
several years, its actual unitary
recognition was what had been
problematic until now. With the
evolution of smartphones and in
particular the improvement in
camera definition, as well as the
development of artificial intelligence,
Hublot and KerQuest were able to
perfect the first visual recognition of
a watch.
 
Each and every Hublot watch is
unique: even two watches of the same
model leaving the manufacture are
distinguishable thanks to the
singularities of their microstructure.
The challenge faced was how to read
them and process them in a reliable
and practical way. The Hublot e-
warranty is based on the unitary
recognition of the specificities of all
of Hublot’s watches and models.
 
The main technology is found at the
very heart of the manufacture, where,
in a way, the passport of the watch is
established. Specially designed
optical readers image and reconstruct
the reality of each piece in full detail,
in very high definition. Every watch
is indeed “photographed” as it comes
out of production. When the watch is
sold in a boutique, the point of sale
activates the warranty using the
Hublot-e-warranty application
(which takes a photo of the head of
the watch lined up with a duplicate
displayed on the screen). The photo
is sent to the computing
infrastructure that will process it and
automatically activate the warranty if
the piece has been correctly
identified unitarily. Once the watch
has been recognised and
authenticated, the customer receives
their Hublot e-warranty via the
channel of their choice (SMS, E-mail,
WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram,
Messenger, etc.), and will then easily
be able to join the Hublotista
community.
 
A specific e-warranty application also
exists for customers. This enables
them to easily access new services,
such as verifying the authenticity of a
piece, retrieving the warranty status
of a piece, or accessing the Hublotista
community. In the event of the loss of
warranty data or of the sale of the
watch without transferring the
warranty to the new owner, the
unitary recognition of the piece by
the Hublot e-warranty application,
available on the Google Play Store
and Apple App, once again enables
access to all the information about
the watch and its warranty. During a
transaction involving a second-hand
watch, the Hublot e-warranty
application will enable the seller or
buyer to check the status of the piece,
and will protect the seller from the
resale of a stolen watch.

The Hublot e-warranty technology is

already compatible with all the
pieces produced by the Manufacture
since the start of 2020. This fully
functional technology is currently
being rolled out across all Hublot
points of sale. The pioneering Paris
Vendôme boutique, which has been
equipped for over a year, and the
Swiss boutiques and retailers are also
already operational. The other
markets will follow in the coming
months. For earlier pieces, the
electronic warranty card remains in
place. When these watches are next
with the after-sales service, they will
be recorded by the Manufacture so
they can benefit from the new Hublot
e-warranty system.
 
Once again, Hublot is placing the
customer experience at the heart of
its developments and intends to
leverage this technology to offer its
loyal customers new interactive
features.
 
Already first in 2009 with the
electronic warranty card
In 2009, Hublot became one of the
first companies in the world to equip
its watches with the WISeKey
technology—a warranty card
activated on purchase, working with
a two-factor authentication system
(cryptographic key and watch serial
number). This technology was
combined with a USB warranty
reader and already enabled the
customer to join the Hublotista
community. In 2015, it evolved,
replacing the contact electronic chip
with NFC (near field
communication) technology.
 
The Hublot e-warranty will be part
of the AURA blockchain initiated by
LVMH
The new warranty system developed
by Hublot is part of a global trend to
fight counterfeiting and to track and
trace product lifecycles, initiated by
LVMH. The Hublot e-warranty will
be stored in the AURA blockchain,
intended for use by other luxury
brands. Developed by Microsoft and
the blockchain company ConsenSys,
AURA is the first international
blockchain designed to help
consumers trace items and assess
their authenticity. Designed by and
for luxury brands, it enables the
tracking of raw material sourcing and
the protection of intellectual and
creative property, among other
things.

T HE F U SI ON OF
I NNOVATI ON AN D
S U STAI N ABI LI T Y F R OM T WO
I CO NI C SWI SS BRAN DS

Hublot and Nespresso, two Swiss icons, have

joined forces on an exceptional project: the
creation of a Big Bang timepiece based on
recycling and circularity. This watch is the first
to be made using recycled Nespresso aluminium
capsules and coffee grounds.

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