Like many watch brands Timex is starting use more recycled or reclaimed materials for their watches, plus reduce water and power consumption during the manufacturing process.

How much water is being used to make things you ask? Well, it’s a little known fact that 2.2 million litres of water are consumed to produce just one ton of lithium for use in car, motorcycle, smartphone and other rechargeable battery production.

So leather is another intense tanning and manufacturing process. It often involves a series of salts and chemicals being applied, pressing and scraping by machine – or hand – plus copious amounts of water being used. In ancient times urine was used to tan leather and degrease the hides and in some poor countries this still occurs at low volume tanneries.

Timex says that they have reduced the water consumption to zero by using a Dri-Tan process for their straps on the Standard models.

However when we did some research we found that the ECCO project, which developed the Dritan process over 5 years, says they have reduced water consumption, not eliminated it completely. Still, millions of litres are being saved by the tanning industry, which employs some 435,000 people across europe, says the EU.

So it’s a win, it’s a feelgood factor Friday. Enjoy your staps watch fans.