As the title states, are there watches that are friendly to the environment? Of course there are! Are there watches out there that aren’t so friendly to the environment? You bet your bottom dollar there are!

When it comes to not-so-environmentally friendly, the first thing that comes to mind are quartz based movements – which require batteries to power them. Yes, quartz movements have come a long way with lower power consumption, meaning less battery changes, but they still require a throwaway battery, meaning more waste – darn you Quartz Crisis!

I am no eco-warrior or purport to be an ecologist, however I am mindful that our planet isn’t going to fix itself without our help, hence why my mindset has veered to sustainability and the environment. I would like my next of kin to have a decent planet to live on, which means my actions today will have consequences and impact to the world they’ll inherit. I know this is a heavy subject to digest, after-all, we are here due to our mutual love of watches, however, we still have to be mindful of the impact we have on the environment, no matter how small or inconsequential we think our actions are or will be.

Anything we could do to keep stuff out of landfill is a good deed, so all you horology lovers that keep, swap, trade or buy old (vintage) watches – especially the mechanical/automatic kind, from decades gone by, I salute you – you are saving the planet one watch at a time!

I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t mention that I am adding to the waste we create by having a number of Precisionist based (quartz) movements in my collection, and a couple of vintage digital watches that unfortunately chew batteries like there is no tomorrow.

So what can you do about it? Well, I can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I am doing now. I have consciously limited the types of watches I have in my collection to mechanical / automatics and solar based timepieces. If I like a particular watch, I now research the manufacturer to ascertain their sustainability credentials – to check if they have (or are taking steps in) reducing their carbon footprint or using recycled materials in their production processes. This obviously limits the watches I can purchase, but it’s the price I am willing to pay to save this blue marble we call home.

But wait, there is more! With my quartz collection, when I encounter a flat/dead battery, I remove those and take them to my nearest battery collection point. I also don’t install new batteries if I do not intend to wear the quartz watches for the foreseeable future – which is a simple and good way to decrease the waste I create and also get to keep my favourite quartz wristwatches in the collection.

And what about all those straps, bands and bracelets? Well if you don’t intend on throwing them out, then it’s all good! Obviously if they are made sustainably, then that’s even better!

Oof, this has been a hard one to write about! It wasn’t hard due to it’s delicate topic – it really shouldn’t be, but its difficulty comes from adding another layer in how we manage and think about our watch collecting habits.

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