Q: Is there mercury in my watch?
A: I had a wristwatch once. I was maybe in Grade 6, and mostly what I remember about it was my mom chasing after the guy who stole it from me moments after we bought it. Pretty gutsy: she chased him into a dead end and wrestled the parcel back.
Despite her heroic efforts to get me a time-keeper, I never did grow up into a punctual person. And now, two and half decades later, watches aren’t essential to an efficient society. Now everyone just checks their cellphone.
However, if you’re still bent on the old-fashioned tech, what’s the greenest way to tell the time on the go, beyond getting a sundial? You certainly don’t need a conventional battery-powered watch. If you’ve got a button cell battery in your watch, chances are it contains mercury. Even alkaline button cell batteries were allowed to have mercury in them (unlike regular-sized alkalines) until, oh, six months ago.
Word is, the ban is being delayed for some watchmakers reliant on models that aren’t yet available mercury-free. Shockingly, those teeny, tiny batteries introduce at least 2,000 pounds of mercury into the U.S. alone every year.
You can avoid this ticking environmental fiasco by going back to an old-school crank-powered mechanical watch, though manual watches do cost more than cheapie electronic versions and require regular maintenance.
By the way, while all sorts of jewels have been used as bearings in mechanical watches (quartz, sapphires, garnets, diamonds), these days synthetic sapphire bearings would be a planet- and people-friendlier choice than rep-blemished rubies. (And I haven’t heard any watchmakers talking up their fair-trade rubies.)
A restored vintage mechanical watch will be your most sustainable (and oh so stylish) pick. Pre-loved timepieces are naturally zero impact, and they were – wait for it – built to last. Score one through sites like darlor-watch.com or pricier vintagewatch.ca.
You can also check out solar-powered watches. The cool thing about their mini solar panels is that even overhead office lights will keep your watch ticking. For a full charge, though, you need either natural light or a spell 20 inches from a light bulb (just not so close to a halogen bulb that you cook it).
Citizen Eco-Drive offers classically styled quality watches whose rechargeable solar cell batteries should never need replacing (from $175 to $650 citizenwatch.com). Timex, Seiko (seiko-cleanenergy.com) and Casio’s G-Shock (gshock.com) offer cheaper solar versions at entry-level prices. Other futurama wristwatches are powered by the kinetic energy of your wrist movements. Seiko makes a bunch of these, though they’ll set you back a few hundred dollars.
All of the above are greener in terms of mechanics. But what about the band? Most watchbands are made of conventional leather (and, according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, two of five watch straps tested contained detectable traces of super-toxic hexavalent chromium), mined metals like aluminum and stainless steel, or petrol-based plastic.
And the high-tech man-made composite ceramics used in some watchbands are by nature a high-temperature and energy-intensive material. Sprout Watches, on the other hand, offers decidedly greener materials including organic cotton straps, bamboo faces, phthalate-free corn-resin bands, mercury-free batteries and, instead of plexiglass lenses, mineral crystal/glass (sproutwatches.com).
Also on offer from Sprout: fish leather straps, which I’d never seen before. (It’s a by-product of fish farming of non-endangered species.) Just sidestep Sprout’s watches made of Tyvek (a Dupont-trademarked plastic), though the material is officially compostable. Sprout’s diamond-studded watches are, the company says, conflict-free, but even certified diamonds are dodgy. All their watches retail for $30 to $65, but I can’t attest to their durability.
For something sturdier, WEwood makes sleek wooden watches out of mostly scrap wood and Japanese mechanical movements, and also plants a tree for every watch sold (we-wood.com). Pueblito.ca sells an armful of even earthier watches with bands made of fair-trade bamboo, tagua nut, leather and more for under $100.
To find out where to recycle old watch batteries near you, punch your postal code into makethedrop.ca. Major chains like The Source, Best Buy, Home Depot and Rona tend to have battery drop boxes. And if you’re buying new button cell batteries for your existing watch, be sure they’re not pawning off old mercury-heavy stock on you. Look for the mercury-free kind.
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