WordProof partners with V-ID to enable on- and offline verification of vintage watches

Jelle van der Schoot
September 28, 2020

It is difficult to earn the trust of people in an age of distrust, especially when the products are susceptible to fraud. Amsterdam Vintage Watches is in the business of luxury watches and have been working with V-ID to anchor the authenticity of vintage watches on the blockchain. To further grow their trustworthiness and to prove the excellent reputation of Amsterdam Vintage Watches, V-ID has partnered with WordProof to make their online content verifiable as well.

Amsterdam Vintage Watches is a family run business, established in 1987, in a historical building in the heart of Amsterdam. Over the last decades, Amsterdam Vintage Watches has proven itself worthy of the trust of countless customers from around the globe. It took a lot of time, knowledge and perseverance to get to there. Most damaging to the vintage watch sector are fraudulent practices, like offering replicas as genuine, or sharing misleading information about the condition of the piece in question. But in recent years, even more sophisticated forms of fraud have surfaced, such as assembling a watch from genuine pieces of other watches to create configurations that never existed.

V-ID for physical product validation

V-ID has experience in securing unique pieces by validating a work from Rembrandt. This project, in collaboration with CMS Law and Douwes Fine Art, caught the eye of the (international) media, including Elsevier magazine. Another project involved securing authentic prints from National Geographic’s award winning photographer Pim Volkers, and V-ID is working on a framework for authenticating diamonds as well.

V-ID currently anchors the set of digital documents indisputably proving the authenticity of a watch on the Fantom blockchain through V-ID’s VIDT Datalink architecture.

WordProof for transparency and online verification of product information

Now, Amsterdam Vintage Watches takes it one step further by also anchoring their online content (product pages, legal documents and orders) on the blockchain. Because of this, customers can verify the online information presented to them. Amsterdam Vintage Watches takes accountability for their content and offers their customers transparency.

By timestamping product pages, Amsterdam Vintage Watches offers transparency regarding modifications to product photos, description or specifications. Customers can verify when product pages were last changed and what was edited;
By timestamping legal documents, Amsterdam Vintage Watches takes accountability to their T&C and product terms. Both the customer and Amsterdam Vintage Watches have indisputable proof of the terms at the time of the transaction, tackling disputes before they have a chance to arise.

Amsterdam Vintage Watches uses blockchain technology to strengthen its excellent reputation, and makes a bold statement by taking accountability for all their online product information!

Amsterdam Vintage Watches store in Amsterdam

The future: non-fungible tokens (NFT) for (luxury) goods

In addition to storing a unique fingerprint of the certificate, there are additional techniques that will help make the transfer of (luxury) goods even safer and more transparent.

Using the VIDT NFT technique, a unique NFT is issued on Binance Smart Chain. This token has a direct relationship with the verifiable VIDT certificate.

To properly test this technique, VIDT will soon tokenize and protect one of Amsterdam Vintage Watches most unique watches: a spotless Rolex Milgauss 6541. Exciting!