Tell Your Watch to Hold That Pose (Published 2020) (2024)

There was a time not all that long ago when bank tellers would record transactions by writing in clients’ passbooks. Technology, of course, has revolutionized all that — and more.

But, as the world has gone paperless, the authentication of a watch is still largely done in the traditional way: producing the original box and the paperwork from the first sale.

So even though hundreds of millions of watches are in circulation, their authenticity, provenance and repair or resale history generally are established with actual paper trails. Lose that receipt, authenticity certificate or warranty booklet and the value of the watch may decrease, even though such documents can be subject to tampering, error or forgery.

To lessen the uncertainties, some watch brands have been developing ways to establish the identity of their watches by relying on blockchain, the database technology used for tamper-proof storage of digital information that is accessible to all.