Hublot enters Web3: meeting with Signvm, the French team behind the project

On one side Hublot, the famous watch brand. On the other, Signvm, a French agency specialising in web3. The partnership with Hublot follows this strategy as Signvm helps them to bring Takashi Murakami's watches into the NFT world. Once again, NFTs meet the luxury industry and become an advertising tool. Short-term strategy or revolution? We met Baudouin Lamarca and Florian Gloersen from Signvm to find out more.‍

• The Takashi Murakami collection
• When a domain name becomes synonymous with hype
• Signvm helps Hublot release its NFT collection

Swiss brand Hublot signs NFT collection with Takashi Murakami

Hublot, founded in 1980, is a famous Swiss brand that has a special place in the world of luxury watches. The combination of gold and rubber imagined by Jean-Claude Biver brings together luxury and modernity. This is the credo that CEO Ricardo Guadalupe has been pursuing since 2012. To continue in this vein, Hublot has signed a partnership with the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Known for his manga-like imagination, using bright colours and spherical shapes (e.g. balloons and flowers), Murakami is one of the most highly rated artists in the world. His work has been embodied in a wide variety of formats, from small vignettes to monumental installations.

This partnership with Hublot was therefore a new challenge for the Japanese artist. This imagination, halfway between pop culture and Japanese tradition, has given rise to two series of watches: 200 black models and 100 sapphire models. The artist has succeeded in keeping the line pure by proposing the most minimalist straps possible, almost transparent for the Sapphire model. Murakami has used his colourful and humanised flower, which is one of his signatures, for the dials. This combination of pop culture and elegance has enabled Hublot to win over a new public.

Signvm brings Hublot into the Web3 era

The partnership with Signvm is a continuation of the collaboration with Murakami. Signvm is a French Powerhouse, Accelerator & Venture Studio specializing in the Web3 and blockchain sector. Signvm will help Hublot build a community and thus potential new customers. The Signvm team explained to us the background of this cooperation

“This collaboration was necessary to understand how social networks work in this market. We helped them to acquire the Ethereum Name Service hublot.eth that the brand proudly displays on its Twitter. This signature is now a must in the Web3 community to be taken seriously and Signvm knows it. The agency has succeeded in creating a buzz around Hublot’s foray into Web3” explains Baudouin Lamarca, Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Signvm.

This example shows the difficulty of a Web3 converstion. The Signvm team explains:

“It is not just about adopting a new technology. The most important thing is to understand the codes, how communities are formed, how they will judge the relevance of a project. Web3 communities are largely composed of very demanding self-taught individuals. It is therefore impossible to import the old advertising codes as they are”

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Luxury NFTs for Hublot

Once the initial community was created, Hublot was able to move on to the second stage. The partnership with Murakami continued to create a collection of NFTs, two series of 108 and 216 models imitating the two watch series in a pixelated mode.

Each watch owner received an NFT of the corresponding series and a small part was used to reward certain members of the community. The goal was not to sell these NFTS but to create a hype around this collection, which is why the number of NFTs was very limited. This strategy worked because the holders of the NFTs were not in a hurry to sell them. On the contrary, those who put them up for sale on Opensea know that they are the first to own a Hublot NFT. The cheapest selling price is 88ETH, or 158,000 dollars

Has the brand successfully entered the Web3?

Despite the price, it is quite consistent with the rarity of these NFTs and the price of Hublot watched. One can however wonder what makes this collection more valuable. Indeed, it shows that Hublot wants to have a place in the world of NFT. However, we could have expected a little more originality from the watchmaker. The uses of NFT have multiplied since the last months. These NFTs only serve to bring a aura to their owners. It was probably a market test! The next collections of NFTs will therefore be crucial in determining whether this strategy has paid off.

For several months now, the luxury world has been turning to the Web3. Clothing and leather goods brands have taken the first steps. Hublot is following this path by importing its watch collection with Murakami into the NFT world. This first test got the brand talking in the Web3 communities. Is that enough? Probably not. We can see here that there is still a long way to go before the old world meets the new.

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Original : https://nftfrance.co/hublot-web3-signvum

‍Interview in NFT FRANCE by Patrice Vibert