Latest / The Manufacturing Podcast with Fexingo: Factories, Supply Chains, and Industrial Business / How a Swiss Watch Factory Is Machining from Recycled Titanium
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this watch factory in the Jura region of Switzerland, family-owned for three generations, and they just switched their entire case production to 100% recycled titanium. Not the blended stuff you sometimes see in mid-range watches — this is aerospace-grade titanium scrap, melted and re-alloyed to the exact same spec as virgin material. Luna: Aerospace scrap — so we're talking offcuts from jet engine components, that kind of thing? Lucas: Exactly. The factory sources it from a Swiss metals recycler that takes certified titanium offcuts from companies like Safran and MTU Aero Engines. They verify the alloy composition — usually Ti-6Al-4V, the workhorse titanium alloy — and then remelt it into billet. The watch factory then machines those billets into cases on five-axis CNC mills. Luna: And the end product is indistinguishable from virgin titanium? In terms of hardness, finish, everything? Lucas: That's the claim, and they've got the metallurgy reports to back it up. The key is that titanium doesn't degrade during remelting the way some other metals do — no oxidation loss, no grain structure deterioration if you control the atmosphere properly. So you can recycle it essentially indefinitely. The factory's chief engineer told me their recycled billet has a tensile strength of 140,000 PSI, which is exactly what you'd expect from virgin grade 5 titanium. Luna: That's impressive. But I have to imagine the economics are tricky. Recycled titanium isn't exactly cheap — it's not like recycling aluminum cans. Lucas: You're right, it's not cheap. But here's the thing: virgin titanium production is incredibly energy-intensive. The Kroll process — which is how you turn titanium ore into metal — runs at over 1,000 degrees Celsius and uses chlorine gas and magnesium. It's one of the most energy-dense industrial processes on the planet. Producing a kilogram of virgin titanium emits about 20 kilograms of CO2 equivalent. With recycled titanium, you're basically just remelting, which cuts that number by roughly 90 percent. Luna: Right, so the environmental argument is strong. But does the factory pass those savings on to customers, or is it more of a premium play? Lucas: It's a premium play, for now. The recycled billet costs them about 15 percent more than virgin titanium — because the recycler has to sort, certify, and remelt in small batches. The factory absorbs some of that cost and passes on about 8 percent to the retailer. Their watches retail between 5,000 and 15,000 Swiss francs, so the price bump is noticeable but not prohibitive for their clientele. Luna: And those clients are clearly buying the story. I mean, a watch made from a piece of a jet engine — there's a certain romance to that. Lucas: Yeah, and that's part of it. But what's interesting to me is the technical side. Machining recycled titanium is actually harder than machining virgin. The recycled billet can have slightly different internal stresses from the remelting process, and those stresses cause the metal to 'spring' during cutting. The factory had to reprogram their tool paths and adjust feed rates to compensate. Luna: So they're essentially developing new machining protocols just to use recycled material. That's a real investment in process R&D. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's the kind of thing that could scale beyond watches. Think about medical implants, aerospace brackets, high-end bicycle frames — any industry that uses titanium and cares about its carbon footprint could adopt similar protocols. The Swiss factory is sharing some of their findings with a network of precision manufacturers, because they see this as a competitive advantage for the whole ecosystem. Luna: That reminds me — and I know this is a slight pivot — but a couple of dollars a month from listeners is genuinely what keeps these conversations going. If you've gotten something out of episodes like this, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo really does make a difference. It keeps the show ad-free and lets us dig into niche stories like this Swiss factory without worrying about commercial breaks. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small gesture that adds up. And it lets us stay independent — we don't have to chase clicks or sponsors. We can spend an entire episode on titanium machining if we want. Luna: Exactly. So back to the metal — how does the factory actually process the scrap? Is it all remelting, or do they use any additive techniques? Lucas: Mostly remelting and conventional machining. But they are experimenting with additive manufacturing for the more complex case geometries — the lugs and crown guards. They've got a laser powder bed fusion machine that can build those shapes direct from titanium powder, which is also recycled. The powder is actually less energy-intensive to produce from scrap than billet, because you don't need to cast a large ingot first. Luna: So you could have a watch case where the main body is machined from recycled billet, but the intricate parts are 3D printed from recycled powder. That's a hybrid approach. Lucas: Right. And they're careful to maintain traceability. Every case comes with a certificate that lists the batch number of the recycled material, the original source — Safran, MTU, etcetera — and the carbon footprint savings compared to virgin. They even etch a small 'R' on the inside of the case back. Luna: That transparency is smart. It gives the customer a tangible connection to the sustainability story. And it builds trust. Lucas: It does. And it's worth noting that this isn't a large factory — they employ about 40 people and produce maybe 2,000 watches a year. So the impact on global titanium demand is tiny. But the proof of concept is significant. If a small shop can make high-end recycled titanium work economically and technically, larger manufacturers have less excuse not to try. Luna: What about the supply chain? Is there enough aerospace scrap to scale this beyond boutique watchmaking? Lucas: That's the million-dollar question. Globally, about 100,000 tons of titanium are produced each year, and roughly half ends up as scrap during manufacturing. A lot of that scrap is already recycled, but not always back into aerospace-grade applications — it gets downcycled into things like golf club heads or spectacle frames. The challenge is creating a closed loop where high-grade scrap stays in high-grade products. That requires sorting, certification, and a supply chain that trusts the recycled material. Luna: So it's not just a technical challenge — it's a trust and logistics challenge too. Lucas: Exactly. The Swiss recycler that supplies this factory has spent years building relationships with aerospace manufacturers to get access to their offcuts. They had to prove that their remelting process could maintain the alloy composition consistently. That kind of trust isn't built overnight. Luna: And I imagine the certification costs are significant. Every batch needs to be tested for chemistry, mechanical properties, maybe even ultrasonic inspection for inclusions. Lucas: Yes, and that's part of why the recycled billet costs more. But the factory says the premium is shrinking. As they've scaled from a pilot run of 200 cases to full production, the per-unit testing cost has dropped by about 30 percent. They're also working with the recycler to standardize the certification so it can be reused across multiple customers. Luna: That's a smart move. If you can get a 'certified recycled titanium' label that multiple manufacturers recognize, you create a commodity market. And commodity markets drive down costs. Lucas: Right. And there's a parallel here to what happened with recycled aluminum. Fifty years ago, aerospace-grade recycled aluminum was a niche. Now it's standard. The same thing could happen with titanium, especially as carbon pricing and ESG mandates make virgin material more expensive. Luna: Speaking of ESG — how much of this is driven by regulation versus consumer demand? The watch industry is a bit insulated from heavy regulation. Lucas: It's mostly consumer demand in this case. The factory started getting questions from their retailers — especially in Japan and Scandinavia — about the environmental footprint of their products. They realized they couldn't just say 'sustainable' without a verifiable story. So they invested in the recycled titanium program as a differentiator. Regulation may catch up eventually, but right now it's market pull. Luna: And that market pull is strong enough that they're now planning to expand the program to their other metal components — the buckles, the crown, even the movement bridges. Lucas: That's ambitious. The movement bridges are particularly tricky because they require very tight tolerances and a specific surface finish. But they've already sourced recycled nickel silver — which is actually a copper alloy — for the dials. So the concept is spreading. Luna: It's interesting — a lot of the sustainability coverage around watches focuses on leather straps or packaging. But the case is the heaviest, most energy-intensive component. If you can solve that, you've addressed the biggest footprint. Lucas: Exactly. And the factory's lifecycle analysis shows that the case accounts for about 60 percent of the total carbon footprint of a watch, assuming the movement is sourced from a standard supplier. So by switching to recycled titanium, they've cut the total footprint by roughly half. That's a meaningful reduction. Luna: Half? That's not just a marketing number — that's real climate impact. Lucas: It is. And they're transparent about the methodology. They publish their LCA data on their website, including the assumptions about transportation and energy mix. They know they'll be scrutinized, so they're careful. Luna: Good. Because the worst thing for a luxury brand is to be caught greenwashing. Better to under-promise and over-deliver. Lucas: Yeah, and I think that's the lesson that extends beyond watches. Any manufacturer that wants to transition to recycled materials needs to invest in the data and the process, not just the marketing. This Swiss factory did the hard work — the tool path changes, the certification, the supply chain relationships — and the result is a product that's genuinely better from an environmental standpoint, not just a badge. Luna: And it's a product that can command a premium because it tells a real story. That's the kind of manufacturing innovation that actually scales. Lucas: Right. And for our listeners in industrial businesses — the question is: what's your equivalent of titanium scrap? What waste stream in your supply chain could be upgraded instead of downcycled? The technology exists. The bottleneck is usually trust and process engineering. Luna: That's a good place to leave it. Lucas, thanks for bringing this one in. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And to our listeners — think about what you're throwing away. It might be tomorrow's premium input.