Seven principles. Three years of Cedric Bellon Tool Watches. A Titanium Grade 5 anniversary limited edition.
Cedric Bellon Sustainable Tool Watches was formally founded in November 2020 by Cedric Bellon, a renown watch designer, Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) member and sustainability advocate, but it has been in gestation in Cedric’s mind for more than a decade, until a new way of producing watches came along in the form of Watch Angels, a new community powered watchmaking system which supports talented independent watchmakers.
With this system he finally could turn his idea and his mission, to push the watch industry to be more virtuous, into reality.
His main source of concern was greenwashing and the lack of a consistent approach to sustainability by watch industry participants.
Rather than focussing on recycling or a mono thematic approach, Cedric Bellon and Watch Angels realised that the key to sustainable design had to be an objective benchmark against which to measure the right or wrong of each design decision.
Logically, if each industry participant would use the same benchmark it would become a customer purchase decsion factor and the refore a competitive factor pushing towards a more sustainable industry.
This thought gave rise to the sustainability score, an independent index developed to measure the sustainability of a watch project.
While developing the index we thought that we just had to use recycled
materials to succeed, soon however we have realised that a true sustainable project is much more than that because to maximise a sustainability index you have to find what is needed from an existing “circle”, transform it into a new “circle” and, finally, made it ready for a future “circle”, in fact, to process in a cycle.
Our approach was therefore split in the three material cycles, the WHAT or CIRCULARITY (materials recyclability / recycled / origin), the WHERE or PROXIMITY (components origin) and the HOW or TRANSFORMATION (components and materials transformation/manufacturing).
For each component each cycle is measured by the index and the single scores have a total influence based on the weight of the specific component. Each individual score is then compared with the theoretical maximum achievable score.
By using this index the sustainability score of a watch project can be independently measured from 0 to 100%. Of course it is not to be an absolute value but rather an objective starting point to compare sustainability and sustainability improvements between watches.
As a practical example for a watch to obtain a high sustainability score it has to be designed and produced according to the seven following principles:
- Made out of locally sourced repurposed or recycled and recyclable or repurposable raw materials
- Sourced locally in a country with a high EPI index (which inclused the human aspect, meaning working and social conditions!)
- Produced as fast as possible with the least possible operations and steps, using the most modern equipment and renewable energy
- Have the less parts possible
- Avoid plastic materials and glues
- Avoid any chemical finishing treatments and processes
- Be mechanically powered
Based on these principles CB watches, in collaboration with Watch Angels, developed a purposely built circular supply chain and the first CB watch, the CB01, achieved an 87% score and the second, the CB01 GMT a 87.59% score. Compared to a similar but traditionally produced Swiss made watch this is more than two times more sustainable.
The CB01 became the first truly circularly produced mechanical watch (with a sustainability report of its own) made out of 100% recycled and certified stainless steel in the watch industry
Following the launch of his two collections, CB Watches has also invited the the whole industry to adopt a sustainability index by means of an open letter which has received great attention.
In this letter Cedric Bellon also proposed to make the sustainability score part of the Swiss made criteria in order to strengthen the Swiss made label.
Fast forward to end 2023 which marks the third anniversary of the brand. For this important occasion, Cedric Bellon has imagined a special CB01, the first model of the brand, fully made out of titanium. Titanium is one of the most durable metals on earth and can be locally recycled in Switzerland . It therefore represents a perfect material for a sustainable Swiss made watch.
The titanium grade 5 for this special edition is not recycled but repurposed, it comes from the leftovers of the Watch Angels factory from other productions, in this case of a luxury brand which cannot be named.
Titanium grade 5 is an alloy of 90% titanium, 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium. It’ harder and more scratch resistant than the more widely used titanium Grade 2. Being harder it’s more difficult to machine and finish (longer machining time, more expensive tools) and therefore more expensive than Grade 2.
Titanium grade 5 is an ideal material for mechanical watches because it’s very light, biocompatible-antiallergic, antimagnetic, corrosion resistant and non toxic.
For the CB01 the case, upper dial and buckle are made out of these repurposed titanium leftovers.
The CB01 Small Seconds Anniversary Titanium Edition encases an exclusive Dubois Dépraz DD14060 small seconds manufacture movement. The only movement in the industry with a small seconds at 12 o’clock.
To maximise the sustainability score it has been sourced from the only existing stock and repurposed for the CB01 Titanium.
The five CB01 Small Seconds Titanium anniversary limited edition watches (Indigo, Blue, Black,Orange and Green) have a sustainability score of 84.44%
The public Angel round (presale) opens Friday 8th of December at 1pm CET here
