Coming from cultural capital of Florence, this watchmaker produces unique wood watches and even does its fair share to help out the forests, too.

WeWood is an Italian brand founded in 2009 in Florence. And coming from Florence can be a blessing and a curse for a brand. On one hand there is the great cultural and artistic heritage.

On the other hand, the brand has to actually live up to it. That’s possibly a difficult ask since the city is known for its art scene, its architectural beauty, and even its T-Bone steaks, but not really for its watches.

But on the balance, WeWood’s designs seem to hold up. One example that stood out for me is the Oblivio, which sports a bold, circular case with metallic hands, large industrial indices, and a rich wood grain 46mm case.

For those looking for a bit more resilience from a wooden timepiece – which they are not really known for – the Phoenix is a good option. It features the brand’s first waterproof case up to 5 ATM or 50 Meters. It is paired with a Miyota VD54 movement and standard issue mineral glass.

Like most other wood watch brands, WeWood uses remnants of hardwoods from all over the world. That helps keep material sourcing affordable and also environmentally sustainable. And just in case that wasn’t enough, for each watch sold WeWood promises that they plant a tree in collaboration with nonprofits like American Forests and Trees for the Future.

So far, the company has planted nearly half a million trees since the program began in 2010. If that is an accurate indication of the number of timepieces they’ve sold since then, WeWood seems to be in decent shape.

Their ambitious goal is to plant 1 million trees by 2020, which seems to be feasible at their current rate of sales. Of course, it’s also a clever marketing strategy to move more products while leveraging on a good cause.

But while WeWood watches are designed in Florence, full disclosure: they are assembled in China. That might raise some sustainability questions, but they’re not exactly the only fashion brand to set up camp in China. And it seems that the brand does more than most to make up for it in the end anyway.