Watch Journalist Yasuhito Shibuya's Useful Watch Industry Chat
Just like Panerai's new releases in 2021, the wave of "sustainability" is sweeping the watch world. This time, we'll introduce some new sustainable watch brands that emerged in the Swiss watch industry in 2020 and are attracting global attention, but have yet to launch in Japan. What message do they want to convey to the world, and what is their product strategy?
(Article published on October 9, 2021)
Panerai's challenge to go down in watchmaking history
Living in a city, environmental problems don't seem so serious. However, when you visit primary industries such as agriculture and fishing, you find unprecedented serious problems occurring there. And you can really feel the urgency of the environmental crisis caused by global warming.
Sustainability is now a keyword for the modern era, known to all elementary school students, and schools are increasingly teaching students about the need for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
So today's children understand this situation better than we did. If we continue to leave things as they are and do nothing, unfortunately, a serious crisis will probably come sooner than we think.
That's why leading companies are now seriously and desperately working to make their businesses more sustainable. Sustainable products are being made in all fields, from durable consumer goods like buildings and cars to IT equipment, fashion items, and food.
So what about the watch industry? There is a popular brand in the watch industry that has boldly taken on this challenge: Panerai.
The Submersible eLAB-ID™ (PAM01225, priced at 7,458,000 yen including tax), released in 2021, is a groundbreaking new model that will undoubtedly go down in watch history. It is the ultimate sustainable watch, with approximately 98.6% of the watch's total weight made from recycled materials, including the titanium case, dial, strap, and even the luminous paint on the dial and hands.
However, considering that this is a limited edition model of only 30 pieces, the regular model "Luminor Marina ESteel™" (1,056,000 yen including tax), which uses recycled stainless steel "ESteel™" for the case and recycled material made from PET bottles for the strap, is superior in terms of overall sustainability and should have greater meaning and value. Incidentally, this watch uses recycled materials for 89g, or 58.4%, of the total weight of the watch, 152.4g.
A sustainable watch that's closer to you than Panerai
https://www.idwatch.ch/
Following in Panerai's footsteps, a watch brand has been born in Switzerland that goes beyond Panerai in concept, "Circular Swiss Made," and is attracting worldwide attention, although this will be its first introduction in Japan.
ID Genève was launched in 2020 by three young people, Nicolas Freudiger, Singal Depery, and Cedric Mulhauser, who raised 273,317 Swiss francs (approximately 3362 million yen at an exchange rate of 123 yen to 1 Swiss franc) through crowdfunding, nearly double their target amount, from 161 investors.
Nicolas Freudiger, one of the co-CEOs who I interviewed online, is not originally from the watch industry. He graduated from the renowned Swiss hospitality management school, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, and previously worked as digital and e-commerce manager at the beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola (HBC) Switzerland.
Those in the hotel industry may know this, but this school, founded in 1893, is a famous boarding school among the wealthy. It is known for having the children of hotel magnates from around the world studying there. In other words, a young business elite started a company with his friend, a watchmaker, to realize a sustainable world, even for watches.
Their idea was spot on: their "Circular Swiss Made" watch concept won the top prize in the consumer goods category at the Circular Economy Award 2020, a competition in which 27 Swiss startups aiming to realize a circular economy competed. It has already been highly praised in Switzerland.
