Not long ago, if we’d told you we’d one day be talking about luxury watches made of recycled fishing nets, you might have said we were away with the fishes. But Ulysse Nardin, long-time purveyor of high-end mechanical watches, has done just that. Are they all at sea? Apparently not. A quick look below the surface tells us the brand is riding the crest of a wave. Here’s the freshest catch of high-end Swiss recycled watches.
Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver
There was both wonder and a little consternation 18 months ago when Ulysse Nardin announced a concept watch made in partnership with French fishing net recyclers Fil & Fab. It sounded good, but where was the watch you could actually buy? Finally, it’s here. Incoming is the Ocean Race Diver (named after the 126-day yacht race timed by Ulysse Nardin), a watch with a case that’s 60 per cent recycled fishing net. There are components made of steel recycled from the car industry in there, too, while the watch’s strap and packaging are made entirely of recycled fishing nets. Beyond that, the movement components are said to be at least 50 per cent recycled and mostly sourced from within 30km of Ulysse Nardin’s factory. Ulysse Nardin reports UN figures indicating 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets are lost or abandoned in the sea every year. These 200 units won’t make much of a dent on that figure, but it’s a start, and at least it’s got us talking about recycled watches.
Chopard L.U.C Strike One
It’s been five years since Chopard announced it would only be using ‘ethical gold’ in its watches and jewellery, a prescient move that can mean its story of doing things right now gets a little lost in the haze. Just one example is this year’s delicious L.U.C Strike One, a watch that jumps out because of its astonishingly handsome profile and nifty hour-chiming mechanism, rather than for its liberal application of 18-carat ethical rose gold, which, according to the brand is ‘acquired from sustainable sources and verified as having met international best practice in environmental and social standards.’ Chopard also has its own foundry, and gathers and recycles its gold scraps, which, one can only assume, must have cost-saving benefits, too. Other brands are starting to follow suit, but Chopard was at the vanguard.
Panerai Submersible Quarantaquattro eSteel Blu Profondo
There’s an increasingly outmoded theory that nothing happens quickly in Switzerland. Panerai disproved the rule by creating an almost entirely recycled watch in less than two of the five years it had said it would take to find the suppliers and figure out how to deliver such a thing. That was last year. This year, the Italianate brand is rolling out one of its recycled materials, dubbed eSteel, into the body of its collection, and into the case of the new Submersible Quarantaquattro (a long word describing the watch’s 44mm case size). That recycled steel case can be set with one of the two straps the watch comes with, one in recycled PET plastic and another in recycled rubber. Panerai says it’s working on recycled packaging and that it’s open-sourcing all its recycling research, so that soon we’ll see other brands adopting the same materials.
Oris Aquis Date Upcycle
Oris’s suite of reasonably priced mechanical watches has often felt ‘good’ – and increasingly, they now are. The climate neutral company makes a splash with its Aquis Date Upcycle, a version of its hardy 300-metre diver’s watch with a dial made of recycled ocean plastic. What’s rather charming about these dials is that because of the way the plastic is made, no two are alike, meaning that in a sense each watch is a piece unique. The watch is symbolic of Oris’s wider actions, too. This summer, the independent brand is organising clean-ups all over the world and inviting all-comers to take part. Responsible luxury? It’s certainly a step in the right direction for the world of recycled watches.
Breitling Superocean Heritage Chronograph 44 Outerknown
Another of the big-name players taking big strides towards a sustainable watchmaking future is Breitling. For example, unless you stipulate otherwise, these days Breitling's luxury watches will come in a flatpack box made of recycled PET, instead of in a carbon-footprint heavy, space-filling wooden box. Breitling has also partnered with surf supremo Kelly Slater’s sustainable apparel manufacturer Outerknown on this blackened iteration of its ageless Superocean Heritage Chronograph. Its recycled component is its strap, which is made of Econyl, a recycled nylon also used by dozens of fashion brands including Prada, Burberry and Stella McCartney.
Omega Planet Ocean Ultra Deep
To marry its close relationship with Victor Vescovo’s record dive 10,935 metres down into the Marianna Trench a few years back, Omega has just put out a new collection called the Planet Ocean Ultra Deep, a family of seven just about impregnable watches that can keep water out down to a bone-crushing depth of 6,000 metres. One of them has a titanium case set on a black and blue striped NATO strap made from polyamide yarn sourced entirely from recycled fishing nets. Omega is a global household name and many will hope this small step into sustainability is followed by some giant leaps.
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