The ID Genève co-founder is testing whether circularity and traceability can become sources of desirability in an industry built on permanence.
GENEVA — Nicolas Freudiger does not want sustainability to become another luxury-industry label. He wants it built into the product.
As co-founder and CEO of ID Genève, Freudiger is attempting something unusually ambitious in Swiss watchmaking: demonstrating that circular materials, traceable supply chains and high-end design can reinforce, rather than diminish, the desirability of luxury.
Founded in 2020 by Nicolas Freudiger, Cédric Mulhauser and Singal Depéry, ID Genève describes itself as the first “impact-native” luxury watch brand. Its broader ambition is to use watchmaking as a proof of concept for a luxury economy built around recycled and regenerative materials, transparency and long-term value creation.
How ID Genève Is Rethinking Swiss Luxury
Nicolas Freudiger studied at EHL Hospitality Business School before working in digital and e-commerce at Coca-Cola HBC. A longtime watchmaking enthusiast, he ultimately brought together entrepreneurship, Swiss craftsmanship and an interest in the circular economy to create ID Genève.
The company’s approach starts with materials.
ID Genève has experimented with recycled metals, renovated mechanical movements and materials derived from industrial and agricultural waste. Rather than treating sustainability as an addition to a finished product, the company is trying to rethink how a luxury product is sourced, manufactured and ultimately valued.
The proposition challenges a longstanding assumption about luxury: that greater environmental responsibility requires compromise. Freudiger’s thesis is essentially the opposite. Circularity, traceability and material innovation can themselves become sources of desirability.
That idea has attracted notable backing. In 2023, ID Genève raised CHF 2 million in a pre-seed round that included Leonardo DiCaprio and several Swiss family offices. The company is also the first certified B Corporation in the Swiss watch industry.
The SDGs on the Wrist
In September 2025, ID Genève made its connection to the global sustainability agenda particularly explicit with the launch of its Circular C SDG collection in New York during Climate Week, marking the tenth anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Only 17 watches were manufactured, one corresponding to each of the 17 SDGs. Prospective owners applied for a piece based on their commitment to the particular Goal it represents, while 10 percent of proceeds went to projects advancing the Goals.
Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division at the United Nations Department of Global Communications, emphasized that the Sustainable Development Goals are more than commitments on paper. They are a practical blueprint for protecting people and the planet, and partnerships can help translate that vision into action.
“By embedding the SDGs into the very design of its timepiece, ID Genève shows how innovation and creativity can drive awareness and inspire action. This collaboration illustrates the power of partnership and proves that even in the world of luxury, every second can count toward building a more sustainable and equitable future,” Nasser said.
The collection also served as a showcase for circular-material innovation. Developed with Swiss company CompPair, the watch incorporates HealTech regenerative carbon technology designed to repair damage through heat and extend material life.
But the Circular C SDG collection is better understood as a marker of where ID Genève is heading than as the culmination of its impact strategy.
From Limited Edition to Operating Model
ID Genève is now formalizing a broader impact agenda around materials, climate, traceability and industry transformation.
Its published Impact Journey sets targets extending through 2027 and 2028, including reducing virgin materials across its watches, packaging and straps, improving supply-chain traceability, maintaining its exclusion of newly extracted precious metals and stones, and increasing the share of secondary or recyclable materials used in its products.
The company also says its Circular S collection generates 54 percent fewer emissions than an equivalent conventional watch, with only 8.6 percent of its materials classified as virgin.
Just as important is Freudiger’s ambition to make those lessons transferable. ID Genève says it wants to share data, methods and practices, influence suppliers and advocate for greater circularity across the watchmaking industry.
That makes the company’s impact journey potentially more consequential than any single watch.
Why Nicolas Freudiger Matters
ID Genève remains a young independent company in an industry dominated by global luxury houses. Its significance lies less in scale than in the model it is testing.
Swiss watchmaking has long been built around products designed to retain value over generations. Nicolas Freudiger is extending that logic to the materials themselves.
What if luxury’s next competitive advantage comes not from consuming more resources, but from preserving their value?
The Circular C SDG collection showed how luxury can connect directly with the global development agenda. Now ID Genève is trying to go further by making impact not a limited edition or sustainability label, but part of how the company operates.
If that model proves durable, ID Genève could help redefine what luxury means in a more resource-constrained world.
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