Dubai-based Omar Chaoui has always been a fanatic about watches, but also wants to bring a modern sustainability message to the often profligate luxury industry.
So, the Moroccan-born entrepreneur decided to marry his two passions in the form of a new watch brand, Magana, which makes a positive impact on the world by supporting a charity planting and maintaining trees in sub-Sahran Africa.
Magana, which translates into ‘watch’ in Mr Chaoui’s native Darija dialect in Morocco, has just unveiled its first timepiece, a limited edition time and date piece with a limited production run of 212 units.
For every watch sold, Magana will fund the planting of 212 trees via the charity Trees for the Future, along with ongoing donations to protect and nourish the land where they grow.
“Time is precious and should be used mindfully and responsibly by making each moment count. We have taken the time these last two years working to bring qualitative, well designed and well executed mechanical watchmaking to people at a fair and transparent price. We also believe that in this day and age, there must be a sense of responsibility in the way we consume products,” Mr Chaoui says.
The first watch is dedicated to the Moroccan city of Fes, and literature accompanying the timepiece will describe the history of the 8th century cultural capital of the country.
That may prove useful, because there is nothing in the design of the watch with any obvious connection to the North African destination.
The Magana Fes is a sporty 40mm timepiece in steel with a black DLC coating that displays time, day, date and month, all driven by a Japanese-made automatic mechanical Miyota movement.
It is sold with both a Velcro and a leather strap for around $1,600 at maganawatches.com.
