After fashion, interior decoration and cosmetics, it's now the watchmaking world's turn to embrace upcycling, giving a new lease of life to waste materials.
The Skagen brand is turning to plastic waste collected in the oceans to create a new collection of eco-responsible watches, simultaneously fighting both pollution and overproduction.
While the watch industry is working hard to find ways to reduce its environmental impact – whether through materials that are less harmful to the planet or through recycling programmes – few have experimented with upcycling, a practice that involves adding new value to unused or waste materials.
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The Skagen brand is now turning to plastic recovered from the oceans to combat marine pollution, while also avoiding using new raw materials to design its collections.
This initiative gives rise to a new watch model called "Aaren Ocean," with a case, straps and dial made with plastic material recovered from the oceans, and reinforced with fibres.
All are created in collaboration with the #tide ocean material company, which recycles plastic waste collected in the oceans, "in part" using renewable energy.
Other watchmakers are also turning their attention to using waste as materials to fashion their timepieces. The Cartier SolarBeat Tank Must sports a strap manufactured using scraps of apples grown for the food industry.
Swatch is turning its attention to making watches from bio-derived materials. It has made a watch of mixed ceramic and bio-derived plastic, with the latter produced from the seeds of the castor plant. – AFP Relaxnews
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