The start-up brand is capitalizing on Latvia’s own resources to design impressive wooden watches that pack a lot of punch at a very decent price.

We’ve covered many wooden watch brands of late, some relatively young and some that have been around for decades. And with the market for eco-fashion on the up, we’re still seeing some new players enter the space.

We recently discovered another example coming from Latvia: Ovi Watch company. We don’t see much in terms of watchmaking from the Baltic country, so they’re worth a closer look.

As it turns out, starting a lifestyle brand specializing in wooden products in Latvia makes a lot of sense, because wood is the country’s number one export. Most of the place is covered with trees, after all.

Ovi takes this plentiful natural resource and adds value to it by designing some interesting timepieces. They’ve even delved into making wood brimmed caps.

But let’s stick to the timepieces for now. Starting from 3D models at the Liepāja Design and Art College, the team realizes all of its timepieces in the Latvian town with the same name. Typical source materials used for the cases include elm, cherry-tree, walnut, and teak.

On the inside we get Swiss made Ronda quartz movements, and each is topped with a sapphire crystal. That’s notable because their price points are very good, typically ranging from the low to high 100s in euros.

Getting your own personalized Ovi watch, for example, will run you 189 euros, which enables you to chose among wooden materials and a specific signature to mark the watch as your very own.

Typical of wooden watches, these too a quite light. They are also quite versatile – perhaps more than most wooden watches – and they can be worn daily and even during some formal occasions without much of a second thought.

Having seen my fair share of wooden watches recently, what I really like about Ovi’s watches is the integration of the hour indices from the dial up to the bezel. It’s a nice bit of wood carving that adds depth and detail, making Ovi one of my favourite wood watch designers.