The green revolution
Watch brands promote more sustainable enterprises but, asks James Gurney, what about the way they go about their business?
Individually, watches are about as sustainable a product as you’re ever likely to buy, given that they have an expected life measured in decades at the least. But that doesn’t mean the industry gets a free pass. Does it – and should it – have a guilty conscience? The volume of gold and other precious metals, the gemstones used, the packaging, storage and distribution networks all come at a cost. Watch brands are keenly aware that commitments to marine life and plastic recovery from the oceans count for little if watchmakers can be shown to be slacking when it comes to their own activities.
Put simply, if your company performs poorly in ratings reports, you risk losing access to brand ambassadors, you put off shareholders and you take a chunk out of your brand value. And in the luxury world, brand value is everything.
WWF Switzerland’s Environmental rating and industry report 2018, which called for more transparency and responsibility in the watch and jewellery sector, was, perhaps, excessively grumpy about the industry. Out of the 15 brands looked at, only IWC got its nose above the midway point in the six-tier ratings system used. But it does highlight the complexities involved. There is a long list of variables to be considered – raw materials, supply chains, labour conditions, manufacturing techniques and energy use.
On raw materials and the supply chain, simply passing the buck to your regular supplier is no longer enough. Take gold for example: how do you make sure that your gold isn’t mined using slave labour or overly poisonous techniques? And it’s a similar story with other precious metals and gemstones. The answer, as the WWF notes, is knowledge and here the industry is undergoing a quiet revolution. Third-party organisations such as the Responsible Jewellery Council and Fairmined, an assurance label certifying gold from responsible artisanal and small-scale mining organisations, offer part of the answer. The real heft, however, comes from the introduction of blockchainbacked tracing of supplies, one of the core functions of LVMH’S AURA platform, which launched earlier this year.
That can all be side-stepped with materials that are less environmentally damaging. Oris’s recovered plastic dials, IWC’S Timbertex (an 80 per cent plant-based synthetic leather) and Breitling’s Outerknown Econyl straps all cater to a growing demand for alternative textiles.
Once the materials are in place the next question involves how they are used. Machining and materials technologies are developing rapidly in watchmaking. As well as the growing use of silicon components, the metal parts are increasingly made using oil-free techniques (TAG Heuer has had the technology in place for nearly a decade), while it’s long been commonplace that waste materials are recovered rather than disposed of – particularly, when it’s a precious metal. Kering, meanwhile, has an in-house research centre looking for ways to cut the impact of manufacturing from sourcing to processes.
The industry has also been on a building spree, putting in place manufactures and museums that are radically different in the way they impact the environment. Take the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, which opened last year, or Omega’s building in Bienne, designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. The latter’s heat-exchange systems, carefully designed air-flows, LED lighting and hi-tech glass mean energy use is minimal. The core of the building is made from wood and power comes, in part, from solar energy inverters designed by the Swatch subsidiary company, Belenos Clean Power. Internally developed systems, including a sensor system, Mr. Sho-ene (“Mister Energy Saving”) that monitors heat, light and humidity are at the heart of another woodrich manufacture, the Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi in Japan, designed by Kengo Kuma (who was also behind the V&A Dundee).
Cleaning up supply chains, manufacturing and buildings all add to watchmaking’s sustainability credentials. But, to my mind, the industry’s ace card is human sustainability. That sense of a watch having a life owes something to the communities that have the knowledge to elevate watchmaking into a culture. This was something that was recognised by Unesco last year and its decision to add mechanical watchmaking to its list of “Intangible Cultural Heritage”.
Cleaning up supply chains, manufacturing and buildings all add to sustainability credentials