Watchmaking Ecodesign

Making ecodesign the essence of tomorrow's watchmaking.

The first industry-wide platform dedicated to measuring, comparing and improving the environmental impact of watches.

Swiss watchmaking built its quality standards together. Today, it is building its environmental performance standards together.

100+
Watchmaking LCA datasets: steel & brass components, specific processes. Fine granularity, full transparency.
One tool
For ecodesign, built for watch designers and developers, to act from the design stage.
One harmonised method
Aligned with the NIHS 70-10 watchmaking LCA standard.
Why WE

Ecodesign creates value for watchmaking

For a watch brand, ecodesign is not a compliance cost. It is a lever that protects the brand and creates value.

A performance lever

The product accounts for most of a brand's footprint. Building environmental performance in from the design stage is the most effective lever for reaching climate, water, biodiversity and circularity targets.

Anticipate regulation

Environmental data is becoming a prerequisite for market access: green claims must be substantiated from 2026, and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is coming. The question is not if, but when. Building your LCA now means being ready before it becomes mandatory.

Optimise production

With precious materials, material yield and loss reduction are a major lever for both cost and impact. Knowing the impact in detail is what makes it possible to optimise it.

Protect the brand

As the brand's primary ambassador, the product is under scrutiny (NGOs, media, rating agencies, investors, customers). Ecodesign makes environmental commitments tangible and credible.

The situation

A method taking shape, data and tools still to be built

Watch LCA is complex

A fragmented value chain

Heavy reliance on suppliers and subcontractors scatters primary data and makes it hard to collect.

Highly complex products

Hundreds of parts, often small and highly specific, that cannot be modelled with generic data.

Very high-impact materials

With precious metals and stones, one inaccurate data point skews the entire assessment. It takes a level of granularity that generic databases do not offer.

Where the industry stands today
✓
Method
Harmonised · NIHS 70-10 standard
✕
Industry database
Non-existent
✕
Industry tool
Non-existent

Without shared data, tools and framework, a watch LCA currently takes several months of work. Each brand does it alone, with no common basis for comparison.

The solution

What WE builds and puts at your disposal

The principle: joining forces

Combining the industry's expertise and resources to accelerate, harmonise and build credibility.

The data

A transparent, watchmaking-specific LCA database, granular enough to pinpoint where action will make a difference.

  • Steel & brass: raw materials (20), machining (46), components (42)
  • Washing processes (6)
  • Mapping of watchmaking activities to generic databases (e.g. ecoinvent)

The tools

An ecodesign tool built for product development teams, bringing environmental performance directly into the creative and development choices behind each watch.

The method

Aligned with the NIHS 70-10 industry standard. WE's experts contributed to developing the standard.

Dedicated studies

On industry-specific issues defined by the members: after-sales service, washing processes and other topics prioritised collectively.

Pre-competitive exchange

A space where brands share practices and lessons learned, within a secure legal framework.

The consortium in action

An initiative driven by the people of the craft

Artisan crafting a watch dial
Watchmaker working on a movement
The consortium

The companies building WE

Independent haute horlogerie makers, major groups, family-owned houses and industrial partners: the full diversity of the industry is represented.

Operational team 109° Creative engineering Earth Action Enodo
Voices from the industry

What our members say

The ambition of Watchmaking Ecodesign is not only to measure the impact of watches. It is to give the entire watchmaking industry the means to design tomorrow's watches with the same level of excellence, now environmental, that has built its reputation for generations.
Matthieu LaffitteSustainability Expert · Audemars Piguet
Developing a robust, credible LCA database for watchmaking requires considerable resources and investment for a single Maison. Through this collective approach, we achieve a level of granularity, transparency and consistency that significantly strengthens the reliability and comparability of our analyses.
Pauline EvequozGlobal Head of Corporate Sustainability · Chopard
Join

What WE changes for you

Shape the industry's collective effort

The industry's methodological foundation, reference data and tools are being built now. By joining WE, you steer the priorities and choices, rather than inheriting a framework defined by others.

Access the deliverables and decide on them

Access to all data, tools and studies. You vote on the roadmap and decide what gets produced next.

Engage with your value chain

A structured pre-competitive space to align brands and suppliers on data and practices, something no brand can achieve alone.

Share the effort

What takes months alone, done once for everyone: credible, industry-wide, shared work.

The members' role

A clear commitment and a protective framework

Every contribution we ask for comes with a guarantee. Especially when it comes to data.

Share data

Provide data to the operational team, which acts as an independent third party to aggregate and anonymise it, using a method approved by the members themselves.

Guarantee

An independent aggregator, a method you approve. No identifiable individual data is ever disclosed.

Take part in the work

Attend workshops and project meetings. Share expertise and experience, and help set priorities.

Guarantee

A manageable pace: 3 to 4 meetings a year.

Provide financial support

An annual membership fee that funds shared industry-wide work, at a fraction of the cost of going it alone.

Guarantee

A pooled cost, shared among all members.

The framework that protects your data
Memberraw data
→
Operational teamaggregation · anonymisation · approved method
→
Reportingaggregated results
Enodo, a competition law firm, ensures there is no antitrust risk.
Next step

Let's discuss your participation

Joining WE is a meaningful commitment. The first step is a dedicated conversation to introduce the consortium to your teams and answer your questions.

Gaylord de Lamarlière109° · gaylord@109-degres.ch
Jean-Baptiste BayartEarth Action · jean-baptiste.bayart@e-a.earth