So, What Is Natural Wood?

But all wood is natural wood right? Well, not exactly.

There are 3 main types of wood: soft wood, hard wood & manufactured/engineered wood. Put simply, soft woods are from trees that produce needles or cones, hardwoods are from trees that do not, and engineered woods are manufactured and do not occur naturally.

Contrary to popular belief, softwoods are not actually named softwoods because they are “soft”. Whilst some varieties of hardwoods are very hard and more challenging to work with, the distinction between hardwood and softwood has little to do with the texture.

So how do you go about confirming you are dealing with natural wood?

The grain is the best place to start. 

Manufactured wood such as MDF will have an easily distinguishable grain that looks like sawdust, pressurised to form a shape.

When identifying natural wood, look for growth rings. These are easily distinguishable from the grain of natural wood and are a dead-giveaway that the wood is a solid, genuine piece taken from a tree.

Often, especially on panels for furniture, a piece of low quality wood is either laminated with wood-effect plastic, painted to look like wood, or veneered. Veneering in this context involves peeling a very thin layer of natural wood from a tree and attaching it to the low quality engineered wood. All these effects will have continuous, repetitive patterns and lack durability. 

All our watches are handmade from natural woods, distinguishable by each of our watches having a unique grain pattern. This ensures quality and durability.

To view our full range of natural wood watches, please click here.