Wooden watches – what’s the deal South Africa?

Everyone has seen a pair of wooden sunglasses or bamboo sunglasses. These days there is a huge variety of wooden watch designs for sale. Why have wooden watches and sunglasses become so popular? Obviously, I can’t speak for everyone but here are a few reasons that I think have played a role in the growing popularity of wooden sunglasses and watches.

Wooden watches and sunglasses are light and durable

There are those days when you wear your sunglasses for extended periods of time. Like when I’m drifting around Oppikoppi and constantly wearing my sunglasses to hide my bloodshot eyes, that’s when you want a really light pair of sunglasses. Wooden sunglasses are lightweight and much more durable than you think. For instance, if you have a pair of bamboo sunglasses you would think the bamboo would easily break. In reality, bamboo has higher compressive strength than brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel. Notice how I didn’t even have to compare bamboo with any plastic?

As strong as brick or concrete might be, making a watch out of either of those materials would be heavy and extremely fragile. A wooden watch can take its knocks and bumps over the years and at most, it will look like a watch that has character because of years of uninterrupted use. Wooden watches also weigh much less than more when metals are used to make watches.

Wooden watches are environmentally friendly

I’ve started trying to be more aware of my “environmental footprint”. In part, it’s because of changing my son’s nappies. How we just put those little stink bombs in a tiny plastic bag, throw it in the bin and forget about it. Or, if you are like me you have had hundreds of pairs of plastic sunglasses. Plastic sunglasses that are constantly flaking, breaking and disappearing. Wooden and especially bamboo watches or sunglasses are much more environmentally friendly.

Did you know bamboo grows much faster than any other grass on the planet? Yeah, bamboo is a grass and it can grow up to 1 millimeter every 90 seconds. Now you understand why wooden watches and sunglasses are better for the environment, especially if made with bamboo. Plus wooden sunglasses and watches are biodegradable.

Wooden watches are more affordable

I’m not going to lie, you will always be able to find a cheaper watch than any watch I can show you. Just ask the guy with a trench coat full of watches. Some wooden watches are more expensive than others. But you can easily get yourself a wooden watch for less than R1000. Finding a good quality metal watch generally cost you much more than that. Because wood and bamboo are so durable you can also know that a wooden watch will give you years of good service. It’s money well spent because you are doing something very small for the environment. Every pair of wooden sunglasses you loose at Oppikoppi will just become part of the dust again in a few years. See it as an investment in the future of the earth and Oppikoppi.

A wooden watch or wooden sunglasses are a talking piece

This is probably the one thing I don’t like about my pair of bamboo sunglasses: It’s a conversation starter. As an introvert, it’s not often that people will approach me for a quick chat. But if they see the wooden sunglasses forget it. You are about to receive an ear beating and it’s going to start with: “Wow, those are cool sunglasses. Are they wooden sunglasses? I would love to get a pair of bamboo sunglasses. Have you seen they now make wooden watches?”

Don’t ask me why, but people seem to really like to use wooden sunglasses as a way to start talking to you. I guess it would be much easier to start a conversation with an asshole like me when I have my bamboo sunglasses with me. If it was my normal plastic pair, that conversation would end pretty quickly with me simply walking away in silence.

Wooden watches or sunglasses are 100% unique

No two pieces of wood are the same. The grain of the wood and the patterns created by the grain differ in each piece of wood. That means that no two wooden watches are identical. Each one is uniquely different. The same goes for wooden sunglasses or any or wooden product. When something is made out of plastic or steel, each product is exactly the same: boring as hell.

Wooden sunglasses or a wooden watch makes a great gift

I don’t buy people watches, because my taste is terrible. I did get my wife a wooden watch for her birthday, but one of her friends helped me pick it. That being said, a watch is a great gift to receive. Now just imagine how much someone would like getting something as unique as a wooden watch as a gift? Everyone has that one friend who has a ridiculously big collection of sunglasses. You can be the friend that gives the sunglass collector his first pair of wooden sunglasses.

Are you a wooden watch kind of guy?

I dig wooden watches and sunglasses. At one stage I was actually trying to source a gevaaalik.com pair of bamboo sunglasses. But when I told one friend about wooden watches, he immediately asked if you can use them to make a fire to have a braai. It certainly isn’t for everyone. But hey, I have a pair of bamboo sunglasses and I think they are rad. I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there that likes wooden watches too. You look like you might be one of us.