In October 2023, a young, relatively unknown Swiss luxury watch brand made news for raising CHF 2 million in a seed round, thanks to participation from private investors, firms including Exelixis Capital AG, and perhaps most significantly, from actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
ID Genève was just about three years and two collections old then, and what set them apart was their commitment to designing and producing high-end Swiss mechanical timepieces with a focus on sustainability and circular economy. This meant using only recycled, reused, and renewable materials as well as innovative processes to craft watches, as a result of which there would be a significantly lower carbon footprint than the industry average. It was a cause that particularly resonated with DiCaprio, who is a vociferous advocate for environmental issues.
ID Genève is the brainchild of three friends- Nicolas Freudiger (CEO and co-founder), Cédric Mulhauser (COO and co-founder), and Singal Depéry (designer and co-founder). It officially launched in 2020 with crowdfunding on wemakeit.com for its first collection called Circular 1, which was instantly 100 per cent subscribed. The 41mm octagonal case (with a round bezel and dial) of the watch was crafted from 100 per cent local, traceable, recycled, grade 4441 steel collected in Jura (carbon footprint of this steel is 10x lower than standard steel), and its ETA movement was refurbished and sourced from unsold stocks. For the straps, the brand partnered with an Italian organisation that specialised in vegetal textile, specifically using the remains of grapes after the winemaking process. Its next collection, Circular S, with a sunray guillochéd dial, featured, for the first time, recycled steel re-melted in a solar furnace, whose carbon footprint was 165 times lower than standard steel. Circular C, ID Genève's third and most recent collection, is a collaborative watch made with the Swiss organisation CompPair. The dial, side decorations, and bezel are made from 100 per cent recycled carbon fibres, which come from wind turbine manufacturing waste— this carbon composite, a healable material, returns to its original condition after heating to 90 degrees in the oven for a minute, reducing the scratches that occur from regular wear.
Everything that ID Genève does, from sourcing and materials to processes and partners, is geared to be socially and environmentally relevant. In a bid to be impact native, the brand is transparent about costs, and its partners include Magical Mushroom and Notpla, UK-based companies that produce compostable packaging, US-based Mirum that makes plant-based straps, and the Italian company Vegea that makes vegetal textile. ID Genève is also B Corp™ certified, a holistic certification that measures a company's social and environmental performance, from the supply chain to processes employed to how the company's operations and business model impact workers, community, environment, and customers.
They will also soon publish an impact report that highlights what they have accomplished and where they are heading in the coming years. ID Genève watches are stocked by Watches of Switzerland in the US and UK, with a starting price of CHF 4,000 (approx.).
We recently caught up with Cédric Mulhauser and Singal Depéry to understand what it takes to set up an environmentally conscious watch brand.
WatchTime India: You have said that you are not just a 'sustainable' brand, but an 'impact native' brand. What is the difference?
Singal Depéry: We began from scratch three years ago, and we are not just a watch brand, but a brand that is built on the idea of circular economy. And because we have built this ourselves, we can go very far in our concept, and would like to influence the watchmaking industry. And this idea of being impactful, and larger than our own brand, is the idea of being 'impact native.
WTI: The concept of your watches is niche yet in-depth. What all does that entail?
Cédric Mulhauser: The goal is to make luxury 'good, with the least carbon footprint impact as possible. So, all the solutions that we are using-the material, the steel, the movement—we try to find what is most sustainable. For example, our first edition [Circular 1] was made with 100 per cent recycled steel. It is complicated to do because generally, when you use steel waste, at the end you always need to add some raw material because you take a lot of different kinds of steel. You can also take 70 per cent steel and take 30 per cent from mining. But we cut out that process because mining is very impactful. So, we have 10 times less carbon in the production of our watches. In our second collection, Circular S, we use 100 per cent recycled steel but this time it was melted in a solar furnace, harnessing the sun's energy. So, the carbon footprint is 165 times less than the industry average for stainless steel.
For the movements, we buy old stocks and refurbish it completely. We work with subcontractors in Switzerland who do this and disassemble the movement, wash all the parts, and reassemble and set it.
Then for the straps, we have a few solutions. The first and main one for the moment is grape residue (80 per cent). The strap has exactly the same properties as normal animal leather. When people think of recycled, they think the quality is not good, and we don't want that. We have to show that recycled is same or even better.
Some of our straps are also composed of green waste from London parks—we developed another material with the [UK-based organisation] Biophilica, who invented a material that uses less water than animal leather, and has no chemical products. It is the first strap that is entirely circular, so at the end of life, we compost it industrially. It makes biogas. Also, our supplier choice, the packaging, the window displays, marketing-we try to find solutions that are sustainable. It's important for us to use things that already exist. So, it goes beyond the product itself.
SD: The starting point is always that—what is the best solution to keep it impactful? In keeping with that, our packaging is home composting. We think that the packaging has to be ephemeral, that is, not there for a long time. Its mission is to transport your watch, and then it doesn't need to be there.
So, we designed something like that. The mushroom-based packaging is for e-commerce, so that its transportation can be light, and we have the seaweed-based packaging for retail—it is heavier, and has an interesting shape. You can put it under water and it disappears after two days, and then you can use the water to fertilise plants.
Also Read: Bvlgari’s Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon sets a 10th world record for ultra-thin watchmaking
WTI: How did this idea develop?
CM: I was friends with Nicolas since childhood, and we always wanted to create a brand. And then we met Singal, for whom sustainability was a way of life. He was an example, living in the middle of the mountains with solar panels. His lifestyle was completely different, and he brought the idea of sustainability to the heart of the company. He inspires us every day with his way of life, his style, designs. All three of us bring something to the table and we can't do the brand without each other.
SD: Cèdric and I have known each other since 2014. When we were at Baselworld, Nicolas would take a vacation and work with us. He was a big fan of watches and the watch industry. That's how he met me.
WTI: Transparency is an important aspect of the brand. Can you explain this?
CM: It means a lot of things. We talk about our suppliers, prices, locality of materials and production, traceability, and be as open as possible. One of the most important things we are doing right now is the impact report, in which we will explain what is good, and what we are going to do in three-five years. We are not perfect in this thing, but want to be better soon. So, the impact report is to show that transparency. We are also the first Swiss made watch brand to be B Corp™ certified.
WTI: What are the third parties that you work with?
SD: For the moment, we are three founders, and more and more people gravitate around the brand. Cedric builds watches, but most of our suppliers are in Jura; we work locally. Of course, the straps are made elsewhere.
CM: We have a lot of people who are not just partners and startups, but we have consultants and advisers on the brand.
There are lots of friends of the brand to give us a lot of support. People are interested in the brand because it is something new—we are really impactful, and we go really far with the concept. We participate in a lot of coaching programmes, too; it helps us also to develop the concept and go far.
WTI: Who is your target audience?
CM: Our tagline is 'Conviction on your wrist. So, our target is people who do that. When you wear luxury, you want to show off. For us, we want to show off too, but we want to show off something different-sustainability.
With an ID watch, there is a lot of stories you can tell. We have young and old people who have been doing things for the environment for a long time. They know about circular economy, and are able to understand what we are doing.
SD: The first kind of people are the ones who will like our product, the second are the people who are invested in our idea. We want to appeal to people who are not into watches, but if there is one watch that they will wear it is ours. Our concept has given us the opportunity to not just be in watch shops, but go beyond, say in a shop that only stocks sustainable products.
WTI: What have been the challenges of setting up the brand?
CM: The first time we met our collaborators and subcontractors, they laughed a bit when we kept asking if they had old stock that we could work with. They thought we were completely crazy. In the luxury industry, you don't really talk about sustainability. What's funny is that now these guys call us and say that they have old things for us. I think the general mindset has changed because of COVID, and also because we bring something new.
One of first challenges—I remember Nicolas and Singal were driving around Switzerland to find waste that we could reuse. To find the steel was a big challenge.
We asked big recycling companies if they had steel that we could reuse, and they said they had tonnes and we could take that. We didn't need that much. And then we were looking for a furnace to melt it and there isn't any in Switzerland to melt it industrially. The minimum is 50 tonnes.
And then we met Panatere SA who developed this (watch) stainless steel for quality, and then we discussed with them how it was a great idea in circularity.
SD: Now it's become fashionable to be sustainable. Sometimes it feels like a marketing argument, and then it becomes greenwashing. But we don't want to say brands are doing bad. I think a lot of brands are trying to do good and there is the initiative. We are there because of the Swiss-made tag, and we are proud of that. We thank them. We just wanted to do something new with Swiss made. It is known for quality, and our mindset is to bring Swiss made at the forefront of sustainability.
WTI: Your first collection was crowdfunded. Is that still the idea?
CM: Our business model is that we don't want to produce more than we can sell. But all the new products, we want to pre-sell. Once we have the prototypes, we show them and take pre-orders. It's important so we can have feedback and sometimes adjust the products. After that, all the products we produce will be in stock.
WTI: How did Leonardo DiCaprio get involved?
CM: It was clear to us from the beginning that we would need fundraising. To stay in this industry, we need to communicate a lot, and we knew that we will be earning less than what we need for marketing. So, we launched our fundraising a year ago. During this time, we were also talking about who we can show the concept of ID to and how we can improve quickly. We laughed and spoke about how DiCaprio would be the best, and joked and said we would want to have him onboard within three years. We spoke about it to everyone, and found someone who knew someone who knew someone who could maybe give us a contact. And we made them the presentation and they said our product was awesome and that he would do his best to give this presentation to Leonardo's team. And then we made contact with the team, and there was a lot of talk, and back and forth—it took about a year to find a good way to collaborate. And now we are so proud that Leonardo DiCaprio is one of our partners.
SD: It is so important that he is an investor in ID Genève because it is proof of the values we share. People pay a lot of money for ambassadors and photo shoots, and we don't have that. So, we are very happy about this collaboration
WTI: How are you looking to scale up?
SD: Marketing is an important area. We want to develop the ideas further; quantify everything we do.
CM: To scale is to continue to develop new materials and be at its forefront, but also to develop the sales channels. We don't want to be everywhere in the world in two years, but do it step by step. Leonardo DiCaprio was not always a part of ID Genève, yet people chose us for our concept. And we need to develop this.
This story was first published in WatchTime India's April-June 2024 issue.
Images: Courtesy brand
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