ID Geneve Circular S Collection Celebrates UK Partnership with Watches of Switzerland

A few weeks ago, ID Geneve celebrated an important milestone for the young brand, partnering with the Watches of Switzerland group for retail in the UK. To celebrate, they descended on the flagship Watches of Switzerland boutique in the renovated Battersea Power Station shopping centre to showcase their latest collection, the ID Geneve Circular S.

ID Geneve, for those unfamiliar, is a brand that was founded in 2020 through crowdsourcing. Their message is a simple one, and one that clearly resonates with their backers: that sustainability has a place in watchmaking . That’s why all of their watches are produced entirely from recycled steel and they’ve started working with Notpla on sustainable packaging.

Their first collection, the Circular 1 reduced the carbon footprint by 10x compared to an industry standard steel watch. However, their new collection, the Circular S goes much further, by using steel with a carbon footprint 165x smaller than industry standard steel. They’ve achieved this by using a solar furnace, a device that uses the natural energy of the sun to melt the steel. It’s this solar element that gives the collection the S in its name.

The watch itself has a 41mm case in their signature design, which is highly distinctive and, frankly, tricky to describe. It would be an octagonal design except for the fact that there are additional fluted or brushed shoulders that run from the edge of the strap towards the mid-point of the body that give it a thicker, barrel shape.

I hesitate to call it tonneau either, because the vertical sides are flat whereas tonneau cases tend to have a smooth arc from end to end in the vein of a Richard Mille. Ultimately, how I describe it is unimportant as it packs an incredible visual punch, especially with the sunburst brushed finish on the round bezel introduced for the new edition.

That sunburst pattern is also present on the dial, albeit in a more extreme, stylised version achieved through laser engraving. There are six colours available: grey, silver, pink, blue, sun yellow and green. Each colour totally changes the character of the watch with the grey and silver looking quite smart while the yellow and pink are cheerful. My personal favourite is the blue, as it has an attractive richness to it.

Below the surface is the refurbished ETA 2824 automatic calibre with 38-hour power reserve. It’s a stalwart movement of the watch industry, one of the most famous and widely regarded workhorse movements ever produced.

As the launch of the Circular S coincided with ID Geneve working with Notpla on sustainable packaging, it’s worth taking a quick look at that packaging. The watch box is made from seaweed biomass and is 100% compostable and biodegradable, an industry first. The box will naturally degrade in nature over the course of just 4-6 weeks or, alternatively, customers can dissolve it in water to create plant fertiliser. And no, it doesn’t stink.

The ID Geneve Circular S is priced at £4,650 or £4,990 with fluted sides and is available through ID Geneve’s online boutique or via Watches of Switzerland in the UK. The new collection marks an important moment for both ID Geneve as a brand and the watch industry at large, showing that sustainable watchmaking is a practical and attainable goal.