The young Italian lifestyle brand is part of a growing trend in the watch industry: wooden watches. We profile the brand and consider why you should go for wood.

We’ve been seeing the odd wooden watch or wooden accessory (like sunglasses) pop up here and there over the last few years. This trend is well in line with a growing lifestyle focus on environmental conscientiousness and eco-fashion.

But it seems that in 2017 there’s a critical mass forming around this part of the industry. In fact, at Inhorgenta Munich earlier this year there was even a special corner displaying these niche brands.

But these latest offerings are different from their predecessors. Earlier wooden watches tended to look a bit bulky, in part because of the method and materials used to carve out the case.

But what we’re seeing these days is more refined models that really have a luxury feel about them. They have also become a bit more robust too, with some of them now even being able to stand up to water contact -who would have thought!

Over the next few days, we will be profiling some of these success stories. We begin today with Laimer. The young company – it was only established in 2012 - is based out of South Tyrol, the picturesque region straddling the Italian side of the border with Austria.

While the region can’t compare with Swiss watchmaking heritage, it can certainly compete with its natural beauty. And nature is what it’s all about with Laimer.

Patrick Laimer, the brand founder, has been working in the wood industry for years. He now applies his skills in making lifestyle products – including watches and sunglasses - combining fashion and the protection of the environment.

The benefit of using wood is that it is a sustainable material – but only when it’s done right. Often, wood watch brand use leftover materials, for example that would be otherwise too small to make furniture. Laimer’s watches and sunglasses are made of high quality leftover woods like maple, hackberry, zebrano, oak and sandal-wood.

In many cases, they use woods native to South Tyrol in Italy, which also lowers the carbon footprint of the business by consuming and producing locally. On top of their sustainable sourcing of materials, the company also supports different projects for reforestation.

Of course, it’s pretty hard to make a movement using only wood. So on the inside of their watches we typically find Miyota quartz movements. The light movements, and also the light weight of the wooden cases and bands makes these watches very comfortable to wear.

The nice thing about wooden watches is that grain itself can provide an excellent aesthetic, especially if different patterns and materials are mixed. In my opinion, the natural look is the best for these timepieces, and Lamier gives us some fine examples. But for those looking for a bit more flash, some models also incorporate crystals from Swarovski, like the “Julia”.

Prices are generaly in the mid-100 euro range and that is a great price point for anyone looking to enter the wood watch movement. And in this case, it is a proper social movement, too, since the company looks to be doing more than its fair share to work in a very sustainable way.