#Squadonamission To Do Better: How Diamonds And Gold Could Become Better

Breitling spent the last two years reshaping the way the luxury watchmaking brand sources its precious materials. Breitling’s first traceable watch – featuring better gold and better diamonds – is the result. Its artisanal gold and lab-grown diamonds come from producers who the brand individually selected for their responsibility towards their employees, their local communities and the environment. The entire supply chain is documented, verified and shared back with watch enthusiasts. This is not a prototype or a one-off. By 2025, all Breitling products will be made with this level of transparency.

Breitling is Introducing Super Chronomat Origins Watch

The Super Chronomat Origins is designed to make a statement, whether paired with a power suit or a t-shirt and jeans. You can tell a Super Chronomat from the rest of the Chronomat family by the ceramic rider tabs and crown, and the rubber rouleaux bracelet only available with this supercharged line. But aside from its enhanced presence, this new watch has another important statement to make. It’s the beginning of Breitling’s mission to do better.

BETTER GOLD

Breitling sources gold from artisanal and small-scale mines that meet the Swiss Better Gold Association’s stringent criteria. The association establishes traceable supply chains between source mines and the market in Switzerland, requiring its members to achieve high levels of social and environmental performance. Breitling is working towards 100% gold traceable to these specific mines by 2025.

For every gram purchased, Breitling makes a contribution that directly supports the communities the watchmaking brand sources from. They, in turn, benefit from infrastructure investment, legal wages, healthy working conditions, protection of biodiversity and, at the close of mining activities, land rehabilitation.​

This month, Italian luxury brand Prada presented Eternal Gold, a fine jewelry collection made of 100% certified recycled gold. For this collection, the Prada Group collaborates with key actors in the supply chain of precious metals and diamonds to drive radical transparency and real improvement to sustainable practices in the fine jewelry industry.

BETTER DIAMONDS

By 2024, Breitling will have completed an industry leading transition to lab-grown diamonds. These gemstones are made by applying gas and extreme heat to a diamond slice, which crystallizes the carbon and allows the diamonds to grow under controlled conditions. Grown diamonds are identical to mined diamonds in every way, and knowing their precise origin means Breitling can be sure that they are free from association with conflict, human rights abuses and environmental degradation. What’s more, for every carat purchased, Breitling contributes to a social impact fund that supports diamond-producing communities.

BETTER TRACEABILITY

Since 2020, every new Breitling watch has come with its own NFT, which acts as the watch’s digital fingerprint. Super Chronomat Origins timepiece is the first time Breitling – or anyone in watchmaking industry – has included a precious-materials supply chain on the watch’s NFT. To verify the information, Breitling partnered with Sourcemap, a leading transparency expert. Sourcemap has traced and validated the journey – from raw material to finished product – along with the social and environmental performance of Breitling’s suppliers along the way.