Nordgreen Watch Review: Insight Into This Sustainable Watch Brand

“The most sustainable thing you can do is not to wear a watch, we want to be the best alternative to that.”

That’s the line from Nordgreen, a sustainable watch company looking to make a difference. 

It’s like most things. The best course of action usually is simply to abstain, but it’s not always practical or realistic. The same is true for wearing watches. 

The next best thing is to create something that’s as sustainable as possible. This is what Nordgreen are on a mission to do with watches. 

I’ve been trying out Nordgreen’s Philosopher All Black watch for the last few weeks. It’s a beauty, there’s no doubt about that. But if you care about the environment, there’s a bit more to it than pure aesthetics. 

This personal Nordgreen review aims to uncover the finer details of the Philosopher watch, as well as the company and underlying sustainability principles.

Disclaimer: I was sent the Nordgreen Philosopher watch as a gift. Nordgreen have not had any input on this review and I have given my honest opinions alongside the facts. The post contains affiliate links.

Who Are Nordgreen?

Nordgreen are a Danish designer watch brand founded in 2017 by Pascar Sivam, Vasilij Brandt and Christian Arnstedt. Sivam heads up the company as CEO. 

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Nordgreen have grown quickly since their beginning. This growth has been partly due to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2018, but also down to good leadership, high quality products and strong values.

Their name sums up their values nicely: ‘Nord’ for where the company originates and ‘Green’, well, for their focus on being an eco friendly business built with the environment in mind.  

One of their aims is to inspire awareness and action around the challenges faced by the planet and humanity. 

Living up to their Scandinavian roots, Nordgreen focuses on minimalism and sustainability throughout their designs. This ticks two major boxes for me. In fact, the motto of this website is to keep things simple and sustainable.  

We’ll get into their sustainability credentials a little bit later, but the top level overview is this: Nordgreen are a highly transparent company and a Certified B Corporation. They have set clear goals and aims in terms of reducing their emissions and environmental impact.

Alongside their good-looking Scandinavian design watches, Nordgreen also produce jewellery and sunglasses. 

Philosopher All Black Watch

I’ve been loving the Nordgreen Philosopher in All Black. As the name suggests, this version of Philosopher comes with a black dial, black case and black strap. 

The Philosopher watch has been designed by well-respected, Copenhagen-born designer Jakob Wagner. The result is a minimal and elegant design or super high quality. 

On the main watch face, there is a small Nordgreen logo, day of the month, two main hands and an asymmetrical second hand. The edge of the face is slightly raised to create a majestic mini-amphitheatre where the dial markings are. 

Philosopher All Black Features

Here are some of the key features of the Nordgreen Philosopher watch. 

• Made from recycled stainless steel – You can read more about stainless steel sustainability here
• Two-part dial – Luminous hands with asymmetrical second hand
• Sapphire crystal glass
• Strap alternatives – You can get the strap in leather, mesh or in three link stainless steel metal.
• Powered by Japanese quartz movement – For precise timekeeping
• Sunray dial design – To resemble a scientific instrument in an homage to the study of time
• Water resistant – Up to 3 ATM (rain resistant) making suitable for everyday wear but not for swimming. 
• Sizes available – 36mm and 40mm

At less than £200, I think the Philosopher watch offers fantastic value for money.

What Makes Nordgreen A Sustainable Watch Company? 

Ok, so we know the Philosopher All Black watch is pretty special from a design perspective. But what about its, and indeed Nordgreen’s, sustainability credentials?

We’ll take a good look below, but you can also find plenty of information available from their responsibility website page. 

Transparency Report

The transparency report ties together all the sustainable initiatives that Nordgreen are undertaking.

This is important. When a company aren’t being transparent, you know they are probably trying to hide something either unsavoury or unsustainable. 

Nordgreen have published a 58-page 2023 responsibility strategy report. Near the beginning they state that they “feel the watch industry needs to take responsibility. Responsibility for over production, for materials sourcing, for labour, for shipping and plastics. And not just through ‘offsetting’ emissions, but by making root and branch changes.” 

This is refreshing to hear from Nordgreen. But we know it’s all about the credible actions, so hopefully these pull through just as strongly as well. 

The strategy report covers four main sections: 

• Measuring & reporting
• Responsible products and customer experience
• Supply chain traceability
• Head office  

Measuring and reporting

The brand has set science-based reduction targets, which they plan to measure and report on. This is a great start and already a lot more than most. 

Nordgreen have the aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2040, which demonstrates their dedication to combating climate change and reducing their environmental footprint.

They plan to achieve this by first reducing the emissions they already know about and measure (scope 1 and scope 2 emissions). The second part is to reduce emissions across their whole supply chain (scope 3), which is harder.

In 2022, Nordgreen’s emissions totalled 533.95 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This has been offset via the UNFCCC-certified climate friendly project at Yunnan Lincang Zhenai Hydropower Project in China. This is the region where the majority of Nordgreen’s products and components are produced.

B Corp Certified

Nordgreen are also a B Corp certified company. They become certified in August 2022. This means that they have met high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. 

This accreditation acknowledges their commitment to creating a positive impact on the world and striking a balance between planet and profit. You can learn more on what a B corp is here. 

Plastic neutral by 2025

In addition to their net zero goal, Nordgreen are working towards becoming plastic neutral by 2025. 

What this means is that for every amount of plastic they produce, an equal amount of plastic waste will be collected or prevented from entering the environment. 

Nordgreen are working with CleanHub to achieve this. 

Responsible products

This area covers a wide range of topics, in which Nordgreen have four long-term ambitions:

1. Products – Use only ‘better materials’ for all products
2. Packaging – 100% recycled, 100% recyclable and 100% plastic-free packaging by 2025
3. Waste – Functional products never end up as waste
4. Giving back – Nordgreen give a donation for every watch sold to one of three charities. In 2022, Nordgreen donated 68,500 Euros between Pratham (quality education), Water for good (clean drinking water) and Cool Earth (rainforest preservation). 

Let’s take a look at the ‘products’ area. The materials used is a big area for me. 

In 2022, Nordgreen released their flagship watch called Guardian. This is a very carefully designed and constructed watch with the aim that it’ll last for 100 years. 

The Guardian watch is made from stainless steel, with at least 85% recycled content, sourced in Finland. All new models and existing models will be made with recycled stainless steel by the end of 2023. 

For their jewellery, Nordgreen source Recycled Claim Standard stainless steel from China containing up to 91% recycled content. 

Also for their jewellery, Nordgreen use lab grown diamonds. Although growing lab-made diamonds uses a lot of energy, the ones Nordgreen use are from a factory in China that sources 100% renewable energy.  

Nordgreen still use leather for some straps. This leather is sourced from Italian tanneries who are members of the Leather Working Group. For some of their straps, Nordgreen offer a vegan leather strap. Although this is good, it still contains a plastic lining (recycled ultra-microfibre) and binder. As you can tell, nothing is perfect, but better choices can be made as Nordgreen admit. 

Supply chain traceability

Supply chain traceability is an essential part of Nordgreen’s approach to sustainability. 

Knowing where all materials and resources used in the production of their watches come from is key. Only this way can you fully know if suppliers are ethical and environmentally friendly. 

The supply chain is split into four tiers:

• Direct suppliers (tier 1)
• Component manufacturers (tier 2)
• Processing stage (tier 3)
• Raw material stage (tier 4)

Currently, Nordgreen have 100% traceability over tier 1, 41% over tier 2, 18% over tier 3 and 0% over tier 4. Their transparency about this is admirable.  

They have aims to reach 100% traceability on tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers by 2024, and a 100% view of tier 4 suppliers by 2025. 

Other watches from Nordgreen

As well as the Philosopher All Black watch that I received, Nordgreen produce a number of other high-quality watches for men and women. Popular models include:

• Guardian
• Native
• Pioneer 
• Infinity
• Unika

You can find all Nordgreen’s watches here. The brand also offer interchangeable straps, allowing wearers to switch between various materials and colours to suit their preference. 

Where can I buy a nordgreen watch?

Are you wondering where to get your hands on a Nordgreen watch?

The best place to buy one of their sustainable watches is from the Nordgreen online shop. 

You can also use my exclusive Nordgreen discount code of TINYECO15NG for 15% off.

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