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Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio will today be announced as an investor in ID Genève, the first Swiss luxury watch company to receive B Corp certification. DiCaprio’s investment is part of a $2 million seed round for the brand, which has become known for using only recycled and reused parts and materials in its watches, including steel melted in the sun and watch bands made from green waste.
DiCaprio’s investment in the brand is at odds. Swiss luxury watch companies routinely pay celebrities to wear their watches as “ambassadors”; but celebrities rarely invest in watch brands. Nearby exceptions include seven-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist John Mayer, who has invested in watch media company and retailer Hodinkee, and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who recently became a shareholder in Chrono24, a used watch marketplace. Bezel, another American online watch reseller, counts actor Kevin Hart and musician John Legend among its investors.
DiCaprio told the Financial Times that he invested in ID Genève because it was “disrupting the luxury watch industry” and “supports ethically sourced and recycled materials and low-carbon processes in a circular economy.” While the exact value of the actor’s investment was not announced, ID Genève’s first round of funding included participation from “several Swiss family offices,” according to the company.
Earlier this month, ID Genève received B Corp status, an independent certification awarded to companies that demonstrate an increased commitment to environmental and social goals.
The watch industry as a whole has been slow to adapt to growing consumer demand for sustainable luxury goods. Nicolas Freudiger, who co-founded ID Genève in late 2020 and is the company’s chief executive, said he expects the combination of his brand’s approach, the market’s receptiveness to low-impact products and DiCaprio’s advocacy to grow his business. “In every industry, at some point there comes an inflection point where a new technology or a new brand becomes more interesting than another,” he said.
Freudiger, 34, said the investment will be made through convertible notes, a form of debt that can later be converted into shares. He said this would happen automatically after two years and would be based on the company’s market valuation at that time.
He added that the equity conversion will coincide with a Series A investment round that will fund the “ID Lab”: an innovation center where the company plans to develop materials and closed-loop manufacturing technologies. Freudiger said he wants the lab to “pool resources and encourage collaboration within the industry to accelerate the transition (toward circularity in watchmaking).”
Damian Ottley, head of markets at WWF Switzerland and co-author of a 2018 report that criticized the watch industry’s poor environmental performance, supports ID Genève’s model. “We really like ID Genève,” he said. “They do great work and have a holistic view of sustainability. They also have B Corp certification, which is a pretty progressive system.”
The ID Genève is currently available in Switzerland, the US and the UK, including from Watches of Switzerland, with prices starting from £3,700. Freudiger said 80 percent of the company’s sales come from its e-commerce site, and he expects to end the year having sold about 600 watches. The company has six employees, including two other co-founders, Cedric Muehlhauser and Singal Moesch, according to Freudiger, who previously worked at Coca-Cola in Zurich.
He acknowledged that “$2 million is a small amount of money in the luxury watch industry,” but coupled with DiCaprio’s name, it would give his company “an opportunity to build partnerships and network with like-minded people to make a difference.” industry”.
Watches of Switzerland Group said it would welcome the upcoming announcement. “As a major retail partner of ID Genève, we are delighted to hear Leonardo DiCaprio’s vocal support for this eco-innovative brand,” said Kesah Trowell, the group’s head of sustainability. “We are confident that his involvement and personal investment will shine a bright light on sustainable innovation in the world of watchmaking and contribute to the long-term success of ID Genève.”
ID Genève’s low-carbon manufacturing initiatives include steel cases made from waste from the watch industry, which are melted in a solar oven using the sun’s rays. The company says the carbon footprint of its “solar steel” is 165 times lower than standard steel.
The company’s watch bands are made from green waste collected from London parks, and it is working with British companies Magical Mushroom and Notpla to produce compostable packaging made from seaweed and mycelium, a structure of material found in mushrooms. It also uses refurbished mechanical movements sourced from unsold stock provided by unknown Swiss watchmakers.
ID Genève is not the only Swiss watch company that is implementing a sustainability strategy in one form or another. Breitling has pledged to replace its gold with 100% traceable ethical gold by March 2025, Panerai is one of many brands to replace heavy watch boxes with less impact-resistant packaging, and Oris has announced a program to reduce its carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, members of the Watches and Jewelry Initiative 2030, co-founded last year by Cartier and luxury group Kering, have signed up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 goals for 2030. These goals, adopted in 2015, range from ending hunger to achieving universal access to water and education. Chanel, Montblanc and Gucci Watches are among the 53 brands participating in the initiative.
But DiCaprio said the industry needs to do more. “Sustainability should be a core value of any company,” he said. “I hope that ID Genève’s pioneering efforts in this area will be taken note by other companies and continue to grow over time.”