Photo: Tom Ford
One doesn’t usually associate luxury with recycling, but maybe it’s high time one did a one-eighty. Tom Ford is paving the way toward more sustainable luxury by releasing the first timepiece made entirely of ocean plastic.
First teased in September, the Ocean Plastic Timepiece by Tom Ford is here. It is still a luxury item, though not top-tier at $995, which aims to salvage some of the plastic polluting our oceans while raising awareness on the need for the watchmaking industry to embrace a more sustainable approach. Each piece is made of no fewer than 35 bottles of plastic fished from the ocean and, while this doesn’t seem like a lot, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
Make no mistake; plastic pollution is a serious thing. In 2010 alone, it's estimated some 8 million metric tons of plastic ended up in our planet’s waters and, with no concrete way of fishing and recycling it, it’s nothing short of an ecological disaster. Other watchmakers have already started focusing on more sustainable products (either using recycled packaging or incorporating recycled materials in the watches themselves), but Tom Ford is the first to make a watch entirely out of waste. The packaging is recyclable, too.
“Sustainability is a key issue in our lives right now,” Ford says. “In particular, the amount of ocean plastic that we are generating is perhaps taking the greatest toll on our environment of all. For every 1000 Ocean Plastic Timepieces we produce and sell, we permanently remove and prevent 490 pounds [222 kg] of plastic waste from entering the ocean.”
Despite being made out of trash, the Ocean Plastic watch is quite a looker. It comes with a classic 40-mm case with black DLC stainless steel screw caseback, and a strap made from ocean plastic and fibers made of repurposed material. It is also water-resistant up to 330 feet (100 meters), in case you want to do some diving of your own for recycling plastic purposes.
With this unique timepiece, Tom Ford is launching the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize in partnership with 52HZ. The prize totals $1 million and will be awarded for ideas that will help the environment, on the condition that they are scalable and market-ready by 2025.
Make no mistake; plastic pollution is a serious thing. In 2010 alone, it's estimated some 8 million metric tons of plastic ended up in our planet’s waters and, with no concrete way of fishing and recycling it, it’s nothing short of an ecological disaster. Other watchmakers have already started focusing on more sustainable products (either using recycled packaging or incorporating recycled materials in the watches themselves), but Tom Ford is the first to make a watch entirely out of waste. The packaging is recyclable, too.
“Sustainability is a key issue in our lives right now,” Ford says. “In particular, the amount of ocean plastic that we are generating is perhaps taking the greatest toll on our environment of all. For every 1000 Ocean Plastic Timepieces we produce and sell, we permanently remove and prevent 490 pounds [222 kg] of plastic waste from entering the ocean.”
Despite being made out of trash, the Ocean Plastic watch is quite a looker. It comes with a classic 40-mm case with black DLC stainless steel screw caseback, and a strap made from ocean plastic and fibers made of repurposed material. It is also water-resistant up to 330 feet (100 meters), in case you want to do some diving of your own for recycling plastic purposes.
With this unique timepiece, Tom Ford is launching the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize in partnership with 52HZ. The prize totals $1 million and will be awarded for ideas that will help the environment, on the condition that they are scalable and market-ready by 2025.
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