OPINION: Is greenwashing over?

Pushes towards a more environmentally sustainable watch industry are nothing new. For years now, dozens of high profile watch brands have expended significant money and resources in order to prove their green credentials. But, with governments showing signs of relaxing their stance on net zero, and with specific environmental claims coming under more scrutiny than ever, watch and jewellery journalist & consultant Rachael Taylor digs deeper to see what lies under the green veneer.

ID Genève’s latest launch comes with a catch. To own one of the 17 watches, collectors must prove not the depth of their pocket or the length of their acquisition journey, but their commitment to the planet; specifically, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which this year marks a decade since its inception.

The ID Genève SDG watch’s black case is crafted from reprocessed stainless steel and a recycled carbon-fibre polymer.

To own one, collectors must make an application to ID Genève proving their personal commitments to their desired watch’s specific goal, be it ending hunger or reducing inequality. 

 “The Sustainable Development Goals are a practical plan to safeguard people and the planet,” said Maher Nasser, the UN’s assistant secretary-general of its department of global communications, who attended the launch of the watch at Watches of Switzerland’s SoHo store in New York during Climate Week NYC in September. “By embedding the SDGs into the very design of its timepiece, ID Genève shows how innovation and creativity can drive awareness and inspire action toward building a more sustainable and equitable future.”

It is also, one can imagine, the ultimate status symbol for sartorially minded philanthropists who like a little visibility around their do-gooding. 

ID Genève, which was founded in 2020 and is backed by investment from Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, is a rarity in the industry in the purity of its cause. Its entire modus operandi is to develop more sustainable watchmaking, from plant-based leather alternatives, to packaging made from mushrooms and seaweed. At other brands, however, it can feel as though sustainability efforts are still very much in the realm of virtue signalling.

Most watches claiming to be sustainable aim to do so via materials. The ocean has been a major focus – no doubt due to the long association brands have held with diving – with cases and straps fashioned from plastics pulled or diverted from the sea. This relatively cheap material and simple storytelling transcends price brackets, and is being used by luxury names including Panerai and Ulysse Nardin, as well as fashion players such as Triwa. 

Hublot has been more creative in its use of recycled materials. For its Hublot Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic watch released in 2024, it created a new composite material for the 100 watches out of 25 racquets and 32 Lacoste polo shirts used by the tennis player during his 2023 season. While a certainly clever nod to scientific innovation in recycling processes, it is hard to imagine that such valuable sporting memorabilia would really have been destined for landfill had it not been scooped up by the brand’s research and development team. 

The problem in general with all these types of ‘sustainable’ materials – including the majority of vegan leather, which is still just plastic by any other name – is that they have the potential to be waste once more. By their nature, watches should have a low environmental impact, as they are not disposable products. Yet, composite materials usually cannot be recycled, and even plastic is not endlessly recyclable – in fact it is ‘downcycled’, becoming weaker each time and only surviving two or three cycles before becoming unusable and being discarded.

Steel, on the other hand, is a better choice, as it can be recycled hundreds of times and maintain its quality. Chopard has pioneered the use of recycled steel after launching Lucent Steel in 2019, a proprietary alloy made with 70% recycled steel at its launch (rising to 80% today). It now uses it exclusively for all its steel watches. Chopard also became the first luxury brand to join SteelZero, which asks members to pledge to source at least 50% of their steel by 2030 from producers on the pathway to net zero.

Other brands investing in recycled steel are Panerai, which launched its part-recycled eSteel in 2021 (although it does not share what percentage of the alloy is derived from recycled materials), and Alpina with models including its Seastrong Diver 300 Automatic Calanda.

That is not to say there are not hurdles to converting to using exclusively recycled steel. Canadian solar-powered watch brand Solios, which has B-Corp status, initially assumed a switch to 100% recycled steel would take four months. Instead, due to what it calls “widespread fraud in the recycled steel industry” it failed to find suppliers it trusted, and had to undergo “rigorous sourcing certification and quality validation processes” that extended the transition to a full year and a half.

While Rolex lists its use of 70% recycled copper, 40% recycled brass, and 40% recycled titanium in its first and latest publicly available sustainability report, released in 2023, it does not mention recycled steel. What it does note is that 60% of the steel used in its Oystersteel alloy is made up of waste metals – offcuts from the manufacturing of other steel products. The brand, in turn, recycles all of its own production waste.   

While it is noble to consider the impact of materials used to create watches, it is just as important – if not more so – to consider the carbon footprint of production. A shining example is Omega’s manufacturing facility in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, which opened in 2017. The 172,225 square foot, five-storey building is crafted from locally sourced wooden beams of Swiss spruce and constructed using a wooden dowel system with no metal fastenings. Heating and cooling are powered by geothermal systems, and it has solar panels that contribute to the building’s energy supply. Such innovations have ensured that it meets Minergie standards, a Swiss certification for low-energy consumption buildings.

The Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030 was set up in 2022 to advance sustainability efforts. Members must adhere to a set of pledges, including committing to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), setting targets to form a pathway to net zero by 2050, and transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030. Interestingly, while it has attracted many businesses from the jewellery industry, its member list is mostly devoid of pure-play watch brands. There are members that produce both watches and jewellery – including Cartier, Chanel, Gucci and Piaget – yet only two watchmakers have signed up: IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre – both owned by founding organisation Richemont. While this could, of course, simply be an issue of inter-brand politics, there does seem to be a general lack of transparency around the issue of sustainability in the watch industry. 

This was highlighted by a 2023 WWF report called Time for Change, which raised concerns about greenwashing in the sector. The report ranked brands, with Patek Philippe in last place, listed as “latecomer, non transparent”. While Patek Philippe has a freely available Sustainability Charter, the document gives no exact information outside of general notes on it being a responsible business dealing in “timeless products”. Kering, LVMH and Richemont brands topped the WWF list as “ambitious”, but none made it to the top two tiers of the categories called “frontrunner” or “visionary”.   

As we move into a new world of increasing environmental legislation, positioning a brand as sustainable can no longer simply be a photo op. Claims are increasingly being scrutinised. Just look at Apple. 

In 2023, it launched a carbon-neutral version of its Apple Watch Series 9, with the claims underpinned by carbon offsetting via eucalyptus farms. In August of this year, a German court ruled the claims as misleading, and Apple subsequently dropped the carbon neutral label from the watch globally. 

While efforts from the watch trade to push the green agenda forward should be applauded, being sustainable in 2025 requires meaningful and measurable action. A quirky recycled material on a handful of watches, or a viral philanthropic gesture, just aren’t going to cut it anymore.

This article first appeared in the December 2025 edition of Watch Insider magazine.