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When is a watch more than a watch? It honestly sounds like a pretty dumb question, but it’s a question that I just asked myself when writing about the Cedric Bellon CB01 – a grade 5 titanium watch that’s just as much a watch as it is a case study in sustainability. I’ll admit, when I first laid eyes on the watch, I thought it looked very raw, almost unfinished. Upon closer inspection and a deeper dive into the brand itself, it started to click. The CB01 is a joint partnership between Watch Angels (a crowd funding platform), Ace Jewelers (an Amsterdam-based retailer) and Cedric Bellon (a watch designer) – by their powers combined, this watch is good for the planet! Captain Planet jokes aside, the CB01 is a 40mm titanium watch that features a mix of finishing techniques, an interesting movement, and very wrist-friendly dimensions. Let’s dig in and take a closer look at this collaboration that aims to bring sustainability to your wrist in a big way.
Case
Measuring in at 40mm wide by 47mm lug-to-lug, the CB01 is a nice fit for my 6.75” wrist. The case is crafted from repurposed titanium. At first, I thought that repurposed was synonymous with recycled, but it’s not. The core belief behind this watch design is that when possible, materials from other productions will be used for this project. So maybe there was too much material ordered for another project that can be used here, having the watch achieve a higher “circularity score”. The principle behind circular manufacturing is that while recycled materials are great, repurposed materials can have an even higher impact on sustainability. They take into consideration what materials are being used, where they originate, and how they can be transformed (and at what environmental cost) into a wholly new watch. This sounds kind of confusing, but Watch Angels provide a downloadable sustainability report right on the product page, and digging into that has been pretty interesting.
