The RANGE community is uniquely committed to protecting and preserving wild places, a dedication stemming from genuine love for our favorite trails, canyons, beaches and rivers. Our readers, contributors, friends, families and supporters are endlessly inspired by the beauty of the outdoors and always looking for ways to do more and be better. Making meaningful purchases, especially of products that are actively designed to waste less, has become a way of life.
Quite a bit of attention has been given to ethical and sustainable clothing manufacturing, but few brands are addressing responsible design of the watches worn by both urban and outdoor adventurers. By recently launching a line of completely solar-powered timepieces, the U.S.-based watchmaking experts at Fossil are eliminating wasteful batteries, a notoriously toxic disposable. The One Eleven brand is named in a subtle nod to exploration and the nearly uniform distance of 111 kilometers between degrees of latitude across the globe, paired with a classic northern arrow map symbol.
One Eleven’s Creative Director, Marty Christiansen, is a passionate outdoor enthusiast, and his vision of an attractive timepiece offered with both modular leather and durable nylon straps was key to the development of this unique concept. As he explains, “We wanted to create a brand for fellow outdoor enthusiasts who like to explore both on and off the grid. Our solar-powered watches charge the best in natural light so we saw this as an open invitation for people to get outdoors, share their adventures, and follow along as we take ours.”
The watches get a boost from the sun, but their Japanese movements are also powered by artificial light, allowing for continuous charging regardless of how much time you get outdoors. While eliminating the worry of plugging in or replacing a battery, current styles add 5 ATM water resistance, which will increase to a fully swimmable 10 ATM with new product to be released in the fall of 2017.
Streamlined functionality was a key goal for the team at One Eleven while they built out the collection, and they’re keeping it stylistically simple as well. Pared-back, unisex colors are done in genuine leather with stainless steel cases to be available in two sizes, and a new woven field strap is coming out soon for that off-the-grid option. Acknowledging that the path to total sustainability is a long one, the brand is committed to transparency and using recycled packaging as well as direct-to-consumer distribution at the beginning of their journey.
RANGE is thrilled to see so much movement in the right direction this season, as brands like One Eleven stand up for outdoor enthusiasts by making better decisions in production to address the issues we care about and giving us the kind of thoughtful designs we’ve always wanted. All existing styles and news on upcoming releases available at www.111watches.com, with major updates coming up this September.
This article was originally published in RANGE Magazine Issue Seven.
xx Nina