Luxury goods
Provenance that outlives the first owner
A piece leaves the boutique with a story and, until now, no way to carry it. An item-level passport keeps provenance, service history and authenticity attached to the object through every resale, restoration and inheritance.
- Identity
- Item level
- Carrier
- NFC or etched QR
- Proof
- W3C VC 2.0
GS1 Digital Link
id.circuleid.com/01/09506000134352
- Product
- Merino Crew Knit
- GTIN
- 09506000134352
- Material composition
- 82% RWS merino · 18% recycled PA
- Carbon footprint
- 14.2 kg CO₂e · ISO 14067
- Recycled content
- 18.4% by mass
- End-of-life route
- Take-back · fibre-to-fibre
Illustrative passport record. Field coverage follows the ESPR delegated act for the product group.
Definition
What is a luxury Digital Product Passport?
A luxury Digital Product Passport is an item-level record holding a piece's materials, provenance, authenticity credential and service history, reached from an NFC chip or etched code. It transfers with the object through resale and inheritance, so a second owner inherits documented history rather than an unverifiable claim.
The maison signs the authenticity credential with its own key, using W3C Verifiable Credentials. A counterfeit can reproduce a code; it cannot produce that signature, which is what makes verification meaningful rather than decorative.
Why item level
A certificate stops at the first sale. A passport does not.
| Paper certificate | Item-level passport | |
|---|---|---|
| Survives resale | Only if the physical document survives with the piece | Travels with the object; ownership transfer is recorded |
| Verification | Visual judgement, or a call to the maison | A cryptographic signature anyone can check independently |
| Service history | Separate records held by whoever did the work | Recorded against the piece by authorised service centres |
| If lost | Provenance is effectively gone | The record persists; the carrier can be re-associated |
| Regulatory data | Not covered | Materials, origin and end-of-life already in place for the ESPR |
Capabilities
What the maison controls
Signed authenticity
The maison issues the authenticity credential under its own decentralized identifier, and can revoke it.
Service and restoration
Authorised centres write work against the piece, building a history that a second buyer can read.
Ownership transfer
Transfer is an event on the record. Provenance continues; the previous owner’s personal data does not.
Material provenance
Stone, hide and metal origin, with the certification that accompanies each, asserted by the supplier.
Carrier flexibility
NFC in a lining or clasp, laser-etched code, or both — the identity resolves the same way regardless.
Client experience
A tap opens the piece’s story, care guidance and service booking, without an app and without a login.
Programme
Introducing passports without changing the object
- 01
Choose the carrier
NFC in the lining, a clasp chip or an etched code, selected per family so the object is never compromised.
- 02
Issue at final assembly
Each piece receives its identity and its signed authenticity credential at the point the maison takes responsibility for it.
- 03
Enrol service and resale
Authorised service centres and resale partners are issued credentials that let them write history and verify authenticity.
- 04
Open it to the client
A tap resolves to the piece’s story and care information — no app, no account, and nothing that identifies the owner.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Does a Digital Product Passport stop counterfeiting?
No, and any vendor claiming it does is overselling. A passport makes authenticity checkable rather than impossible to fake: a counterfeit can copy a QR code, but it cannot produce a credential signed by the maison’s key. The value is that a buyer, a resale platform or a service centre can verify in seconds instead of relying on judgement.
What happens to the passport when a piece is resold?
Ownership transfers as a recorded event against the same product identity, so the provenance chain continues rather than restarting. The seller’s personal data does not transfer; the piece’s history does. That continuity is what makes a passport worth more to a second owner than a paper certificate that stops at the first sale.
Do luxury goods fall under the ESPR?
Leather goods, footwear, textiles and jewellery sit within categories the ESPR (EU) 2024/1781 working plan addresses, with requirements arriving through product-group delegated acts. Most maisons begin for brand and resale reasons rather than regulatory ones, and find the compliance dataset is largely the same one.
Where does the carrier go on a piece that cannot be marked?
An NFC chip set into the lining, the clasp or the strap is the usual answer; laser-etched microtext and DNA-marked materials are also used. CirculeID is carrier-agnostic — the passport resolves from a GS1 Digital Link identifier regardless of how that identifier is physically carried.
Can service and restoration be recorded?
Yes, and it is one of the strongest arguments for item-level identity. Authorised service, restoration and part replacement recorded against the piece turn a serviced item into a documented one. For watches and jewellery in particular, a complete service history materially affects value at resale.
Next step
Start with one collection
We will model the identity, the carrier and the credential for a single family, and show you what a client sees when they tap it.