Introducing: Skagen Aaren Naturals

Becoming more eco-friendly in the materials used in creating our favorite products. We’ve seen this a good deal in the watch world, primarily with a focus on using plastics recycled from ocean waste. While these watches don’t feature plastic, they do have some interesting changes – meet the Skagen Aaren Naturals.

Now, to be clear, these are very much the same Skagen Aaren watches we’ve seen all along, in terms of overall design. We start to see some changes in the case. These are stainless steel, but they feature recycled content so we’ve got some waste eliminated. For the straps, they’re also going with leather alternatives, including cork, mulberry bark, and apple (do note that the cork and apple straps have some PU in their construction).

I think it’s great that Skagen is exploring some alternative materials here, especially as they bring some interesting textures to the straps (and the dial, in the case of the cork and mulberry versions). It also goes a ways to demonstrate their longer-term commitment in their supply chain to reduce the impact on the environment when it comes to creating these watches. Well, all of their watches, actually, as they’ve also done things like this:

• Reduced the use of virgin plastics across their supply chain
• Sourced more than 90% of their leathers from Leather Working Group certified tanneries
• Implemented new paper on their core packaging that is FSC certified with 100% recycled content. 

So, as you can see, they’re doing their part to walk the walk. Now, back to the specific watches we’re talking about today. For these eco-friendly watches, they’re available in both 36mm and 40mm case sizes, both for just $125. Depending on the specific model, that will change what the materials are made from (is it just me, or are those cork straps just tempting?); inside you’ll be powered by a quartz movement that’ll be protected to 5 ATM of water resistance. Check them out, and the rest of the Skagen Aaren lineup, over at skagen.com