Solios shines light on solar-powered watches
Never buy — or throw away — another battery for your timepiece with this sustainable product
How eco-friendly is your wristwatch?
It’s a question the founders of the Canadian timepiece brand Solios hope more people ask themselves as climate change and waste continue to be at the forefront of many discussions. The company, which is headquartered in Montreal, creates solar-powered watches that are designed with sustainability and eye appeal equally in mind.
We caught up with Alex Desabrais, one half of the brand’s founding team along with business partner Sam Leroux, to learn more.
Q For those who aren’t familiar, what is Solios?
A
Solios is a way of wearing your values on your wrist, a symbol sending a positive message to change people’s mentalities. We created the finest solar-powered and sustainable watch.
From the integration of its solar technology into such a minimalist design, to our state-of-the-art eco leather — free of PU and PVC, as opposed to vegan leather, and filled with recycled microfibre — and our 100 per cent recycled packaging, our product follows our message: Perfection is an illusion, but improvement is accessible to everyone.
And if you are making true efforts toward a sustainable lifestyle, you deserve a symbol that highlights these efforts, as well as a reminder that improvement is never over.
Q
What are some of the unique challenges you face working with solar power in a timepiece versus other power sources?
A The biggest challenge was definitely the integration of this technology in such a minimalist design.
Most solar-powered watches have multiple elements in their dial to take your attention from the transparency that can expose the solar cell. Our partners and suppliers didn’t want us to go that way, they told us it wouldn’t work to expose the dial and yet hide the solar cell. We decided that we wouldn’t take no for an answer.
More than one supplier quit the project in the middle of it, but we eventually succeeded in developing it exactly the way we imagined, with the perfect transparency to opacity ratio, to let light rays reach the cell, but hide it from people looking at it.
Compared to traditional battery-powered watches, our biggest challenge is the production cost. It is much more expensive to produce a solar movement. Therefore, we need to emphasize the number of batteries that are wasted every year only for watches — more than 300 million — and the fact the main reason why people buy a new watch, is because the battery needs to be changed.
Q Where are the watches designed/ made?
A The watches are completely designed in Canada, in Montreal, by my partner and myself. Every part of it, every component, angle, etc.
They are made in different places. We travelled to a lot of places to discover different expertise. The solar movement is made by a Japanese company. The assembling of the watch case, with its movement, is made in Hong Kong, as opposed to Shenzhen for most watches.
The eco leather straps are made from a French company, and assembled by a Swiss company. The packaging is made in Canada, and the final assembly is done in Montreal.
Q Where can people check them out?
A On our website, Solioswatches. com, our Instagram page @solios. watches and our Facebook page facebook.com/solios. We are in a luxury boutique in Montreal called Tozzi, and are talking with one of the biggest fashion retailers in Canada (but we can’t say the name at this point.)
Q What is the price range for Solios designs?
A Our watches are all $335, including an interchangeable strap. Every additional strap is $65, whether you want our eco leather or magnetic-mesh stainless steel design.
Q What’s next?
A We want to disrupt the watch industry by changing how quartz watches are being produced. We want to improve an outdated process, to make it more sustainable in ways that people don’t even notice — like how waste is managed during the production, or how the watches are protected while being transported.