Is the Pragma P1 the most sustainable watch yet?

It’s maybe apt that the first watch from new brand Pragma is called the ‘P1 - Perseverance’. The Geneva-based company’s co-founder, Christopher Wegener, says he has waited 21 years to make it happen, after training in watchmaking with Rolex, before taking up positions with the likes of FP Journe and Laurent Ferrier. The opportunity came from a chance meeting with Kai Lui, a Taiwanese product designer who’s ex of Hermès but with no experience in watches. ‘I think that has actually made a real difference, in terms of attempting things that traditional matchmaking likely wouldn’t attempt,’ says Wegener.

That’s not simply in terms of the P1’s industrial design: it comes in four versions, three steel and one gold and is inspired by Liu’s regard for Swiss architects such as Mario Botta and Peter Zumthor, for whom precision geometry – with a touch of brutalism – are calling cards; distinctive are the two-part indices and the sub-dials, with the date and seconds displayed not using hands but revealed through cut-outs in revolving discs. ‘The design has to be strong enough to speak for itself, to do the job of any logo on the dial,’ says Liu – not least because there is no branding at all on the P1.

But beyond design, Pragma’s real point of difference is more to do with its 100 per cent Swiss-made watch's use of materials: specifically, they are 82.7 per cent recycled, which, even for a low-volume production, partly explains the P1’s higher-end price (at around £22,000 for a steel version). As Liu points out, ‘people still tend to think recycled materials are cheaper, but actually the processes required make them more expensive’. He cites, by way of example, that the steel used for the P1’s case – developed in collaboration with Voutilainen & Cattin – is from Panatere’s La Chaux-de-Fonds solar-powered furnace.

‘When, at the start of this project, I spoke with people in the industry – at huge brands – I was often told that nobody [among high-end watch consumers] cares about sustainability, but if you can provide the same quality [as comparable products] and be sustainable then obviously that’s great,’ says Wegener. ‘Besides, I think there’s an obligation to change the way we build things now. And [contrary to what I was told] I think a younger generation of watch collector especially does care now. Of course, the design has to be right. But sustainability is the cherry on the cake.’

There are still limits, he suggests: replacing, for example, the movement’s synthetic rubies or the sapphire glass with something sustainable and of comparable functionality remains out of reach – but Pragma nonetheless hopes to push up the recycled content to between 90 and 95 per cent by 2026.

The brand’s sustainability – about which it is, unlike some of those behind competing claims to sustainability, fully transparent, potentially making the P1 the most sustainable fully-Swiss watch yet – is not its only point of difference. Financing the development and launch of such a watch is a challenge, Wegener concedes: so buy one of the edition of 12 gold pieces (price is on application, but five remain available at the time of writing) and you also get to own 1 per cent of the company.

‘We really want collectors to be passionate about our watches, to want to get behind what we do, which this opportunity presents – and you also get a gold watch, of course,’ says Wegener. ‘The response has been very positive. Some actually want the equity more than they want the watch. And I’m also OK with that.’

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