By Oscar Holland, CNN

(CNN) — In an age when clocks are found in most pockets and on every screen, watchmaker Col&MacArthur’s selling point is not just time, but history itself.

Known for using unconventional materials — from Pearl Harbor seawater to meteorite moondust — in the name of horological storytelling, the brand is now commemorating the D-Day landings with a series of watches made from US soldiers’ helmets and haversacks, as well as sand from the beaches of Normandy.

“People are not buying this watch because it tells the time,” the company’s CEO Sébastien Colen said on a call from Belgium, where the former energy executive co-founded the company in 2013. “It’s because it is bringing them back somewhere in the past.”

Colen had spent three years developing a prototype for his Normandie 1944, a luxury watch featuring metal from an M-1, the standard-issue helmet used by the US Army during World War II. Sourced from a military memorabilia trader in Dallas, Texas, the helmet was flattened in a press, rather than with a hammer, to preserve its original markings and imperfections. The resulting metal sheet was then cut into circles that can be incorporated into dials and inserted in the watches’ 43-millimeter cases at the brand’s studio in Liège, Belgium.

The pieces are being produced to order, meaning the number of helmets required depends on how many are sold. (One M-1 contains enough metal for “about 20” watches, Colen said.) The watchmaker is currently accepting orders via a Kickstarter campaign, which has raised over $86,000 at the time of publication.

Elsewhere, the design features a small capsule of Normandy sand and a strap made from an M-1928 haversack, the backpacks widely used by the US Army during World War II. The dial displays a historical map of Omaha Beach, a codename given to one of the five landing areas — alongside Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches — used by Allied troops on D-Day.

Operation Neptune, as it is also known, was the largest amphibious invasion in history, marking a major turning point in the war. The M-1 was worn by the vast majority of the 73,000 US troops who landed in Normandy — either on the beaches or as airborne troops — on June 6,1944. The helmets’ one-size-fits-all design comprised a manganese steel outer shell and an adjustable inner lining that was attached to a leather chinstrap.

In the absence of markings identifying the wearer, it is often impossible to trace individual helmets to specific soldiers or battles. And although Col&MacArthur cannot guarantee that each M-1 helmet it uses was worn during the D-Day landings, certificates of authenticity from the dealer, Gustafsons, confirm that they were used during the wider liberation of Europe.

Col&MacArthur will produce two versions of the watch, the varying prices reflecting differences in their internal mechanisms. The premium “Legacy” edition (priced at $1,749 and limited to a symbolic run of 1,944 units) features a Swiss-made movement, while the standard version (priced at $699) uses a cheaper Japanese movement.

Ethical quandaries

Colen came up with the idea while at Belgium’s Ciney Militaria, one of the world’s largest military collectibles fairs. He then visited Normandy to speak to locals and familiarize himself with the landings’ geographical context. “It’s very important that we go on site, to feel it,” he explained.

Unlike the helmets and haversacks, the sand presented a legal hurdle: Taking sand from any French beach is prohibited by law. Normandy’s D-day sites are commonly targeted by souvenir-seekers (France’s Ministry of Culture has meanwhile asked UNESCO to afford them World Heritage status), and although authorities tolerate people taking small amounts for personal use, doing so at scale or for commercial purposes can attract fines of 1,500 euros ($1,724).

Colen instead sought permission from a local mayor, whose office advised him to collect sand that had naturally blown from Sword Beach onto a neighboring road. “If we want to respect the memory, it’s very important that we do these things properly,” Colen said.

Other ethical considerations will arise as the watches go into production. Among them is the question of whether to use stained parts of the haversacks — possibly containing blood — on the straps’ reverse side, or to cut around them entirely. “It’s tricky, because some people could be offended. But on the other hand, for me, it’s something that’s very important to show,” Colen said, without offering a definitive answer to how he will approach this dilemma. “It’s a question of authenticity.”

Then there is the wider moral question of whether historical artifacts should ever be intentionally destroyed. M-1 helmets were mass produced, with over 20 million made between 1941 and 1945 — and they are relatively common on the collectors’ market, where they typically fetch hundreds, rather than thousands, of dollars each. But Colen understands why people might criticize his decision to recycle them into luxury items.

“Every time we do a project, we really question ourselves, ‘Is it is it respectful?’” he said, before referencing Winston Churchill’s quote that those who “fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

“This is exactly what is happening today,” he argued. “So, instead of having a helmet sitting in a warehouse, it’s on a watch, it’s providing emotion and it’s reminding us, every single day, of events of the past.”

‘Tangible’ memories

Col&MacArthur’s short history is rooted in British, rather than American, military tradition. Originally a collaboration between Colen and former British serviceman Iain Wood, the company was founded 12 years ago to produce watches for the country’s Scots Guards, the latter’s erstwhile regiment. The pair later designed pieces for various regiments of the Royal Guards, the sentries protecting Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace in London.

In 2017, Col&MacArthur began work on a line of watches marking the centenary of World War I — one of which was presented to French president Emmanuel Macron. The watch’s success heralded a pivot towards timepieces centered on major historical figures and events. “Without knowing at the time, I was already working on our first commemorative watches,” Colen said.

In the years since, the watchmaker has released collections based on more than a dozen themes, from Leonardo da Vinci to the Battle of Britain. Many of them contain “tangible” artifacts, including moon dust from a lunar meteorite (used in watches dedicated to the Apollo 11 mission) and water from Pearl Harbor (trapped between sapphire crystals in watches commemorating the Japanese attack on America’s naval base there in 1941).

If its latest crowdfunding campaign exceeds $100,000, Col&MacArthur will start putting money toward its next collection: timepieces memorializing the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany’s last campaign on the Western Front. Colen plans to incorporate fragments of a shell, dropped on the Belgian city of Bastogne, into the watches’ design.

“For every single watch, we really try to integrate something unique,” he said.

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