TAG Heuer’s latest watch lets you view your NFTs. It can also tell you the time.
TAG Heuer CONNECTED Caliber E4
Prince once said: “Time does not exist. Watches are available. Time is just an agreed construction. “The same could and has been said about ownership of digital artwork and NFTs. Can you really own something that has been replicated thousands or sometimes millions of times online? You can, but only because we all agree that you can.
Recently, TAG Heuer has made history by leveraging its vast craftsmanship to bring these two theoretical constructions together with a software update to the Connected Caliber E4 collection. The company announced the update in June, which allows watch owners to display their NFT artwork directly on their wrists.
MetaMask is a cryptocurrency wallet software.
TAG Heuer’s new software feature, called Lens, lets you connect to crypto wallets such as Metamask and Ledger Live, and then display one or more NFTs on the connected watch. Lens supports both static images and animated GIFs, which will play as endless loops. Verified NFTs are displayed in a hexagon with a cloud of particles gravitating around the image, so you can prove that the NFT displayed on your watch is authentic – as long as the person you are trying to prove it to is familiar with this feature.
And because it’s still a clock, Lens has “a new conceptual design” that lets users tell the time “with a triangle and a circle representing hours and minutes.”
For those unfamiliar with the technology, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital assets whose ownership is registered in a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain, the same technology that drives cryptocurrency. NFTs can be anything from a GIF by Michael Jordan that thumps from the free throw line to digital art.
For both creators and collectors of digital art, NFTs and blockchain technology have been monumental. Creators can now receive compensation in the same way as traditional artists. And because their authenticity can be verified, these digital artworks can increase in value, making them appealing to collectors
Digital collectors can now display their art directly on their watches.
Former President and CEO of Walt Disney Company Robert Iger with his Mickey Mouse watch from the 1930s … [+]
Although this feature is the first of its kind, the idea of using pop art on the wrist is not new – Mickey Mouse has adorned the faces of watches from Timex to Rolex from 1933. The Apple Watch has dozens of ways. to customize the monitor, even if it does not have built-in support for displaying confirmed NFTs.
Launched in 2015, Apple Watch was Apple’s first new gadget under CEO Tim Cook
TAG Heuer is also not the first luxury brand to embrace blockchain. Gucci, Louis Vuitton and countless others have launched NFTs with mixed results. But its embrace of blockchain technology as fundamental to the future puts TAG Heuer in the same category as other forward-looking manufacturers – Fendi partnered with Ledger on a luxury hardware crypto wallet, Samsung launched an integrated NFT marketplace and a growing number of luxury brands, including TAG Heuer and the parent company LVMH, have begun to accept cryptocurrency.
In some ways, this release is a logical step forward for the 162-year-old legacy brand. Founded in 1860, Heuer has been at the forefront of its industry and has invented revolutionary technologies including the Mikrograph, the first stopwatch capable of accurately measuring steps in 1/100 of a second, the first automatic chronograph and the first luxury. smartwatch. Astronaut John Glenn wore a Heuer wristwatch on his first orbit around the earth.
TAG Heuer Carrera detail
On the other hand, this is a departure. Most of the company’s innovations have centered around precision and performance, making them the favorite ride among pilots, divers and other consumers for whom accuracy is paramount. Beyond signaling the status of the device owner, there is no practical reason to display a looping GIF with proof of ownership on a wristwatch. Although, to be fair, many innovations in urology, including the invention of the wristwatch, were originally seen as junk. The first wristwatches were treated as jewelry and owned almost exclusively by women.
Cartier wristwatch for women
And practical is not really the point for the NFT audience. While companies such as Atomic Form and Infinite Objects work to integrate NFTs into the traditional ways we experience art, others embrace the way NFTs integrate art into our everyday lives.
Users with premium Twitter accounts can view verified NFTs as profile pictures. People interact with NFT artwork in video games. Others display NFTs on their sleeping computers and smart TVs as expensive screensavers, and act as display art for a few clicks to wake the device. This means that we often experience incredibly expensive works of art in the same way as we experienced the Flying Toasters screensaver in the early 90’s.
“Flying Toaster” screensaver by Berkeley Systems, created in 1989
This subversive approach to art and currency is the fundamental ethos of the crypto-society. Perhaps an 8-bit punk avatar worth more than $ 170,000 – but only because the market agrees – shows off a watch made by one of the most respected heirlooms on the market, which perfectly matches that ethos.
Owners of the TAG Heuer Connected Caliber E4 can access the new feature via a free update in the Apple App Store (the update will be coming to Android soon). Those interested can learn more about TAG Heuer’s NFT watch here:
