Recently, Breitling’s assembled “Surfer Squad” is surprisingly to attract most peoples’ attention. The new Superocean Heritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown edition watch first made an appearance in my book. Actually, this is not an totally new timepiece, it just adds a new dial and a sustainable strap to the existing in-house Superocean II which was introduced at Baselworld this year, in the form of a recycled nylon ‘Econyl’ NATO strap due to a neat connection with the ocean preservation initiative of Breitling Squad member Kelly Slater.
It’s certainly not the first time a strap built with recycled materials we’ve seen in the watch space. Oris announced a Diver Sixty Five earlier this year (to coincide with a beach cleanup initiative) that came on a strap woven from an exclusive new material called r-Radyarn which was made from post-consumer recycled polymers. But the journey to this Breitling-Outerknown watch and this particular new strap goes through Breitling’s new “Surfer Squad” which is a trio of brand ambassadors introduced by new CEO Georges Kern in the early months of his tenure at Breitling, including the likes of Australian surfers Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons, as well as 11-time World Surf League Champion Kelly Slater.
The Superocean II Outerknown builds on the variant released earlier this year, by adding a scratch-resistant black DLC coated stainless steel case and a dark blue sun-ray dial, both colors are also showed with the striped nylon strap, Outerknown’s “OK” logo was branded above the 12:00 side of the case. Through a short period of wear experience, surprisingly, our David (who shot these images at the launch event in London) found the recycled nylon strap itself is very soft to touch, and compared to many of the overly stiff, thin, and abrasive NATO straps, it’s a significant contrast. But perhaps the best detail of the strap itself is that nothing about it gives away the fact that it’s recycled. Actually, it’s rather simply a comfortable, well-made, forward-thinking alternative without any disadvantages that we’d like to see more of in the future. You can see the plastic material that are made from similar tough fishing nets once you take a close look at it. Anyway, it feels softer and nicer to touch and wear. It doesn’t look any worse than your regular woven NATO.
In theory, the watch itself bears all the same metrics of the current SOII: a 44mm stainless steel case, equipped with a Valjoux/ETA 7750 based chronograph movement with a day/date aperture at 3:00. Breitling replica has been rather excellent with minimizing case thickness on these 7750-equipped pieces which is a well-known thick base caliber, though this one will sit that much higher on the wrist with the strap running underneath it. The true test of this setup is that if the recycled strap is available to support such a large, heavy watch head. we found the fabric softness conducive to a snug, comfortable fit and it’s proved to wear comfortable enough. Even if the watch did “flip” a bit side to side and did not sit perfectly flat on the wrist. For those who like to wear timepieces on NATO straps will don’t mind it.
According to the research, almost three-quarters of a million tons of fishing nets and gear are abandoned in the ocean every year, some of which is up-cycled into cheap bracelets, sunglasses, skateboards as well as other eco-friendly toys and home products, while this is the first time that we’ve seen recycled nets spun into a watch strap, especially one from a luxurious watch brand. It might be a simple innovation, but it’s a long-overdue one. Except the Outerknown collaboration, Breitling (along with Outerknown) is now supporting the Ocean Conservancy. We’re very comforting that more and more mouthpieces like Breitling and others starting to brand these types of initiatives in a meaningful way, under such background of the industry filled with passive, feel-good “slacktivism” as the standard for doing good. While the new Superocean II Outerknown isn’t totally a surprise, since Breitling did imply that specific products sharing Outerknown’s mission would be introduced by the end of the year on their collaboration page. Can we take bets that there are more and more handsome cheap replica watches with recycled materials will rush into the market?