Responsibility in Watchmaking

In watchmaking, sustainable production methods and materials are no longer an optional extra for the watchmaking industry but an integral part of the future of the watch business. From Aera’s inception, we knew that responsibility and sustainability would be pillars of our activities as watchmakers. As an industry, that means embracing eco-friendly materials, ethical practices, and innovative technologies. Across all the disciplines involved in the creation of Aera watches, we have striven to make every choice with one eye resolutely on sustainability. It’s an ethos driven by both practicality and philosophy.

In the coming issues of the journal, we will explore the many ways that a sense of responsibility at Aera has contributed to and benefitted the creation process, in design, in engineering, in craft and helped to formulate Aera’s own sense of purpose.

In design, that meant deliberately building longevity into all our watches. That of course meant only using mechanical movements in our watches, liberating them from the tyranny of battery replacement and software updates. It was, frankly, a no-brainer. Critically, unlike quartz movements, mechanical movements can be repaired down to the tiniest component. With a faulty quartz movement, the tendency is to discard the entire movement and replace it with a new one. For Aera this is wrong on multiple levels. 

Swiss-manufactured, mechanical watch movements from Sellita are the beating hearts of all Aera watches. Sellita's movements are based on proven and widely available mechanical architecture that ensures that parts - and the expertise to maintain them - will always be accessible. So, while you can enjoy the beauty of a mechanical Aera watch in the now, you also can do so reassured that, properly maintained, it will still be ticking away many many years into the future, and more or less indefinitely. For us that is sustainability in itself and something to be celebrated.