WISeKey is present with its anti-counterfeiting technology at BaselWorld 2014 to demonstrate to the Luxury Goods Market the latest technology deployed with several leading Swiss watch manufacturers. WISeKey's anti-counterfeiting technologies revolutionized the fine timepiece industry when first launched at BaselWorld in 2009 together with Hublot. Earlier this year Hublot announced at Davos the extension of the cooperation with WISeKey for another 3 years.
The collaboration launched in 2009 has made Hublot a leader in the field of digital identification and authenticity protection. All Hublot watches are protected by WISeAuthentic®, the authenticity certification system based on WISeKey technology, and the 69 Hublot boutiques and 750 points of sale across the world are equipped with the system for activating and reading this new digital certificate.
It also led to the creation of "Hublotista.com", an exclusive club which connects all the Hublot watch owners worldwide.
Counterfeiting is a big problem for the luxury goods industry, and especially for the watch industry. In 2011, the Swiss watch industry exported watches worth 19.278 billion Swiss francs. More than 50,000 people in Switzerland work in the Swiss watch industry. It is estimated that 40 million counterfeited watches are offered for sale each year. This means damage of approximately 800 million Swiss francs per year. All these figures show that the watch industry is greatly affected by this scourge and thus has a major interest in the fight against counterfeiting at the most important trade show for this sector.
"Sometimes buyers know they're not getting the real deal when they acquired counterfeited watches. But more and more often, buyers pay full market price for a forgery, thinking they're getting the genuine item. The latter instances are what we call true counterfeits, and these represent the gravest threats to legitimate manufacturers and the buying public", said Carlos Moreira, CEO of WISeKey.
