Method and system for authenticating using a quartz oscillator

A method for authenticating a timepiece, the method comprising:

• measuring acoustic vibrations emitted by the timepiece to obtain an electrical signal;
• performing a transform of said electrical signal into at least one domain;
• extracting identification information from the transformed electrical signal;
• comparing the extracted information with at least one reference information;
• and
• determining an authenticity of said timepiece based on the comparing.

A method for authenticating a timepiece, the timepiece comprising at least one of:

• at least one quartz oscillator;
• and at least one transducer, wherein at least one of the quartz oscillator and electronic circuitry driving the quartz oscillator are modified so as to encode additional information in an acoustic signal the at least one quartz oscillator generates, the method comprising:
• modulating a resonance frequency of the quartz to generate a set of additional peaks in a signal frequency spectrum,
• measuring acoustic vibrations emitted by the timepiece to obtain an electrical signal;
• extracting identification information from the electrical signal;
• comparing the extracted information with at least one reference resonance information;
• and
• determining an authenticity of said timepiece based on the comparing.

A device, comprising at least one of:

• at least one quartz oscillator comprising a quartz-based electronic oscillator having a quartz crystal piezo-electric mechanical resonator having a resonant frequency that serves as a time base for the timepiece and electronic circuitry configured to drive the quartz crystal and to generate an oscillating electronic signal;
• and
• at least one transducer,
• wherein at least one of the at least one quartz oscillator and the at least one transducer is configured to emit an identification signal.