Can a wooden watch be as strong as a metal one?Published: 11.10.2019

Wood is of course a very nice, warm and personalised material, but it is no equal to metal. Hereby we especially mean the tiny details of watches. This is why first Prosawood watches were not highly resistant to breakage. However, already then, we knew that we can always improve and thus, we began inventing ways to make watches stronger. Over the next six years, we have gradually and purposefully moved towards our vision, which is to create a watch using the beauty of wood but having the strength of metal.

Movement is the heart of a watch

Engine is the most important part of a car and just like that, the first determinant of the quality of a watch is what makes it tick, i.e. the movement. Various movement manufacturers probably don’t mean much to you, but you have probably heard that the best watches are from Switzerland or Japan. Why? Because the experience and tradition of watchmaking in those countries dates back several centuries and during this time, they have constantly evolved the technologies used.

The movement in Prosawood watches have also undergone a great deal of development and by now there is a stark contrast with the mechanisms with which we once started. As our aim is to always provide the best, then surprise-surprise, our mechanisms as well are from Japan or Switzerland – depending on the model. To keep the price of watches affordable, we have thus far used the most common battery-powered quartz mechanisms. For most people it is not too much of a hassle to change battery every couple of years, it is actually more convenient than to turn up your watch and see if it has stopped.

There is a difference between “some glass” and a true watch crystal

In order to avoid all kinds of dirt getting between the hands and the dial, most watches use glass (or crystal in “watch language”) to cover those parts up. Only few people know that there is VERY BIG difference between a glass and a glass. Cheaper brands ordinarily use acrylic glass crystals on their watches. By their very nature acrylic glasses are not even real glasses, instead being made out of plastic. This type of “glass” may break very easily and scratch resistance really is not there in those cases. However, such types of crystals are far not enough for our standards.

Reinforced mineral glasses and sapphire glasses are wholly different from what we previously described and those types of crystals are the ones we use on Prosawood watches. Sapphire glass for example is very highly rated in the watch world and it is also used by the most expensive and exclusive watch brands. Like the name states, sapphire glass is produced out of this gem (as a rule the gem is synthetic), due to this, the price of the material is of course higher compared to other materials. Our aim is to always offer You the best, thus we can do no compromises here.

Most fragile part – wood. Is it though?

In case of each watch, people first look at its appearance. Watch is after all for most people just an accessory and not a timepiece. This however does not mean that we, as manufacturers, could make any compromises in strength for appearance. By now, we have been at it for six years, to be sure of the strength of the wood used in our watches, in addition to its good appearance.

One of the most important changes has been the development of materials. Over time, we have been able to replace weaker species of wood with stronger, e.g. maple, sandalwood, walnut and rosewood. The processing of wood has however also changed. Compared to the first Prosawood watches, the watches we sell now have a lot more endurable varnish and polish. The main concern for a wooden watch has however never really been how to process wood…

Much bigger challenge has been to achieve strength. Inadvertently, it sometimes happens that the watch gets stuck behind something or falls off your hand or a far too narrow doorway attacks it. The biggest disadvantage of wooden watches has been that they do tend to get hit and twisted. It must be understood that wood is after all wood and since watch does not have the thickness of a beam, then it is impossible to obtain the same strength as metal. Or is it?

The coolest innovation of Prosawood watches over all those years is the combination of metal and wood! After a long period of development, testing, failure and retrying, we have finally found the solution for taking another step closer to making our watches stronger. One solution is our own technology, wherein a wonderfully thin sheet replaces the “face of the clock”. On the face of it, you probably don’t even notice it, but in terms of strength, the watch compares to any metal item! For some models, the solution is even more certain, for example the Tribe model has a metal base for the entire body of the watch. Thanks to this, we are now more confident than ever before in the durability of our products.

All our new models are of course equipped with the stronger technologies. Step-by-step we will implement those innovations on classic models as well and hopefully, in a short while, we will be able to state that all our watches have once again inched closer to becoming as strong as steel. Now, to conclude, it is worth asking, whether a wooden watch can then be as strong as metal, the honest answer is, not at the moment. What we can promise is that in terms of wooden watches, the upgraded watches which Prosawood offers are some of the strongest in the world!