Bulgari has partnered with Swiss digital security firm Wisekey to create a new watch concept that will offer users cybersecurity features in a traditional watch.

The Bulgari Diagono “E” Magnesium is a self-winding luxury watch embedded with a cryptographic system and encrypted near field communication (NFC) technology. The watch works with an app called Bulgari Vault to securely store pass codes, cloud data, payment information, and more. The uses are limitless, the company said, and include Bulgari hotel check-in, car unlocking, and alarm system activation. The data will be backed up on servers in military bunkers in the Swiss Alps. The app, and the data inside, will only be accessible to the wearer of the watch.

“In stark contrast with the producers of smartwatches, and even to the handful of traditional Swiss watch companies that have responded to them with their own ‘connected’ timepieces, Bulgari has chosen to offer a high added-value luxury meaningful proposition,” the company said in a statement. 

“We always been have obsessed by security.… We came to the conclusion that the ultimate benefit for our consumer in his daily life was, besides having a beautiful object on his wrist, a true Swiss watch, also to have the ultimate data protection,” said Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin.

The watch is expected to debut in early 2016. 

JCK