Principles
When my manufacturer and me first approached the project, we thought that to make a sustainable watch we just had to use recycled materials to succeed.
However, soon we’ve realised that a true sustainable project is much more than that. It is about finding what is needed from an existing “circle”, transform it into a new “circle” and, finally, made it ready for its future “circle”. In fact, to process in a cycle.
We also wanted to measure the sustainability with a consistent, objective and comparable method for the watch industry, formalised in an index which is based on 3 principles: circularity, proximity and transformation.
You find the index calculation and data by downloading the “sustainability report”.
Circularity
Of course we privileged materials which are recycled and/or recyclable.
The goal was to source materials from an exisintg «circle» and have them ready to join a new «circle» at the end of their lives.
For this reason, each material we use in the project has been assigned with a “circle score”, which takes into account the recycled/repurposed (old circle) as well as the recyclability (future circle).
Proximity
Produce as much as we could inhouse and reducing the CO2 emissions was a clear choice. When this was not possible, we have selected vendors close to us and based in countries with a top ranking in the EPI 2020.
Transformation
We privileged transformation methods which avoid the use of chemicals and energy different than electricity. The electricity used in the factory is 100% produced from renewable sources and it’s certified by “Naturemade” a leading Swiss energy quality label.
THE RESULT: 87% sustainability score
Each part composing the watch has been judged considering these 3 principles. A total score has been calculated considering the weight of the components related to the total weight of the watch. A typical mid range watch produced today would have a score of just 42%, while my watch reaches 87%, meaning that it is 2.07 times more sustainable.
While it’s not 100% — because today it is impossible to produce a 100% sustainable watch which is also affordable - I feel that my message to the watchmaking industry to consider working in a more virtuous way has been substantiated. It can be done!
