Christopher S. Nelson 
- Luxury watchmaker Hublot is accepting bitcoin as payment for a collection of limited-edition watches.
- Hublot has partnered with BitPay to accept bitcoin with its US eBoutique and will continue to accept bitcoin through this outlet.
- Other luxury brands, such as Gucci, Balenciaga and Tag Heuer also accept bitcoin.
Luxury watchmaker based in Switzerland Porthole now accepts bitcoin as payment, starting with a limited edition Big Bang Unico collection of 200 pieces, per year announcement of the society.
While the release begins with this limited edition collection, the addition of bitcoin to the platform will not go away for the US eStore. The company has partnered with BitPay to bring the feature to this limited release, but their partnership will continue.
In order to secure any of the watches in this collection, customers will pay around $21,800 or a little more than the current price of 1 BTC. The Big Bang collection is Hublot’s flagship design and the limited Unico offer is in titanium.
However, Hublot is not the only luxury brand to co-opt the bitcoin ecosystem. In fact, fashion retailers Gucci, Farfetch, and Balenciaga have all previously announced limited trials or full acceptance of bitcoin as payment. Similarly, luxury jewelry retailer SFLMaven, as well as jewelry store Continental Diamond have also announced that they will start accepting bitcoin.
Along the same lines, Hublot isn’t even the only Swiss-based luxury watchmaker to accept bitcoin. On May 19, Tag Heuer announced that it would also start accepting digital currency for its online platform.
BitPay and other cryptocurrency infrastructure providers continue to enable companies like the aforementioned luxury brands to attract a whole new customer base through the use of bitcoin. The assistance provided to these companies allows them to participate in the bitcoin ecosystem without requiring technical know-how.
