2222 | PENTA | December 2020 | PENTA | December 2020
Ticking
Toward Green
A commitment to ethically sourced
materials is just one
facet of watchmaking’s
eco-friendly new ways
By LAURIE KAHLE
A
t the annual Geneva watch
fair in 2019, H. Moser & Cie.,
an independent Swiss watch
brand with a playful sense
of humor, displayed a partic-
ularly unique piece: the Moser Nature
Watch. Billed as the first “green” watch,
“100% Swiss grown and made,” its steel
case was adorned with living succulents,
moss, mini echeveria, cress, spiderwort,
and onion sets, with a dial made of
natural mineral stone and lichen from
the Swiss Alps. Grass even grew on
the strap.
With the Nature Watch, which is
alive and well in the brand’s headquar-
ters, H. Moser created an emblem for its
announcement that it was committing
to meet certification conditions of the
Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC),
which was founded in 2005 to establish
responsible standards for the entire
supply chain from mine to boutique.
RJC’s Code of Practices—covering
gold, silver, platinum group metals,
diamonds, and colored gemstones—is
the global gold standard for brands that
have committed to ensuring materials
used are responsibly sourced and pro-
duced. Supply chains must meet RJC
standards for human rights, labor rights,
health and safety, product integrity,
environmental impact, and more to earn
RJC Chain of Custody certification.
Sourcing ethical materials is just one
aspect of extensive, multilayered initia-
tives that have become de rigueur
throughout the industry, from corporate
conglomerates, such as Richemont and
Sustainable
Movement
100%
The percentage of
“ethical gold”
used by Chopard,
sourced from two
traceable routes.
520
The number of
pieces Panerai will
produce of the
Luminor, made
with sustainable
composite carbon-
fiber material.
December 2020 | InspiredByPenta.com | 23
From left: Courtesy of Chopard; Courtesy of H. Moser & Cie; Courtesy of Paneraialloy recycled from the discarded drive
shaft of the Pangaea, Horn’s boat used
for a four-year expedition.
In the fall, Panerai rolled out the
PAM1096 Luminor GMT–42mm,
in partnership with Luna Rossa, the
36th challenger for America’s Cup
sailing competition in New Zealand
in 2021. This new Luminor, limited
to 520 pieces, marks the premiere of
Scafotech—a composite carbon-fiber
material used for the Italian team’s
AC75 yacht’s hull and hydrofoils.
Panerai obtained excess material
from the production of the boat to pro-
duce the watch’s dials and cases. For the
dials, the material is forged into a high-
tech polymer, while the Scafotech cases
exhibit a variegated texture, similar to
the brand’s previous models made of
Carbotech, a material used for the new
watch’s bezel. The brand is working to
meet next year’s objective of producing
a 100%-recycled watch.
Last May, Johann Rupert,
Richemont’s chairman and majority
shareholder, said on a company call,
“We’ve used and abused, I would guess,
70% of the world’s natural resources.
We still act as if climate change is not
real; we’re dumping plastic everywhere
and now nature retaliated, so maybe it’s
time for us to pause and to think.”
Previous page: Chopard’s Alpine Eagle
Large. This page, from left: H. Moser
& Cie.’s Nature Watch; Panerai’s
PAM1096 Luminor GMT–42mm.
LVMH, to independent brands like
H. Moser and Chopard.
Two years ago, Chopard announced
that all gold used for its jewelry and
watches will be 100% ethical, originat-
ing from two traceable routes: artisanal
freshly mined gold from small-scale
mines participating in the Swiss Better
Gold Association (SBGA), Fairmined
and Fairtrade plans, and RJC Chain of
Custody gold through Chopard’s part-
nership with RJC-certified refineries.
In the fall, Chopard released a chro-
nograph, including a steel-and-gold
model, in its Alpine Eagle sport watch
range. It also added two 18-karat rose-
gold Alpine Eagle Large models to its
lineup of automatics launched last year,
crafted entirely from ethical gold.
Last year, Jean-Christophe Babin,
president and CEO of Bulgari, an
LVMH brand, announced that 100% of
the gold Bulgari used is RJC certified,
and 99% is recycled. “We don’t excavate
gold any longer; we just use gold that
has been excavated 20 years ago, 100
years ago,” he said during a webinar
about sustainablity.
Bulgari is also working on develop-
ing similar certification standards in the
colored gemstone industry as a founding
member of the Coloured Gemstones
Working Group (CGWG) run by The
Dragonfly Initiative, established by
prominent jewelry houses worldwide.
Last year, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari,
and Hublot assessed 70% of their sup-
pliers, and Bulgari, which accounts for a
large proportion of the group’s colored
gemstones, visited mines in Sri Lanka,
India, Mozambique, and Zambia.
In its dense 100-plus-page 2020
Sustainability Report, Richemont tracks
its progress in achieving many targets
laid out in its Transformational Strate
launched in 2019.
The report highlights IWC as a “sus-
tainability leader” among Richemont’s
portfolio of brands, citing its commit-
ment to reducing plastic waste by signing
the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New
Plastics Economy Global Commitment.
IWC claims to be the first luxury watch
brand to commit to RJC Chain of Cus-
tody standards for its gold, which is
derived from recycled sources, and it
is working toward Chain of Custody
certification for its watch components.
Panerai also got a shoutout for its
use of recycled titanium in 2019’s Sub-
mersible Mike Horn Edition in Ecotita-
nium, a new alloy made from at least
80%-recycled material. Last spring,
Panerai followed up with the limited
edition Submersible EcoPangaea Tour-
billon GMT PAM1108, made from a steel