On the environmental bandwagon
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Christophe Roulet
Editor-in-chief, HH Journal
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Jaeger-LeCoultre Tides of Times - Aldabra atoll (Seychelles) © Expedition team Aldabra/Foto Natura
When a company makes diving watches, surely it’s only natural that it should care about the marine environment, which is plagued by pollution. A number of firms have indeed decided to do their bit, just to show that ecology is everyone’s business. And possibly promote their core values at the same time, with tailor-made products into the bargain.
Hence IWC recently became a partner to the Charles Darwin Foundation on the Galapagos Islands. The Foundation’s aim is to conserve this world heritage site, an archipelago that stretches a thousand kilometres off the coast of Ecuador, and to safeguard its biological diversity and unique ecosystem. As from this year, the Foundation will benefit from proceeds from the sale of the Aquatimer Chronograph Edition Galapagos Islands.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has also heard the call of the wild: “When we launched the Master Compressor Diving in 2007, we discovered some magnificent marine environments, still perfectly intact. We quickly became aware just how fragile these ecosystems are, and of the urgent need to safeguard this biodiversity. In order to alert public opinion worldwide and to lend our support to the protection of marine sites, in 2008 the Manufacture committed itself to the ’Times of Tide’ partnership for three years.” In collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Center and the International Herald Tribune, each year the company gives its support to a list of endangered sites.
As for Blancpain, it also aims to make young people more aware of marine environments and the need to preserve them by funding diving lessons, under the aegis of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. Who knows, perhaps these up-and-coming environmentalists will one day be swimming among sea anemones, equipped with nothing but their diving watch…
