In the timepiece capital of the world, time may be running out for carbon-heavy imported steel thanks to a new solar-powered furnace.

Swiss firm Panatere has patented, and has now inaugurated, the world’s first two solar foundries for melting down steel for reuse.

Consisting of 500 concave mirrors mounted on a heliostat that allows them to track the Sun, each is focused into furnace’s chamber until it reaches 2,000 degrees Celsius. Heat like this can melt steel in 1.5 hours, all without any fossil fuels being burned.

They are marvelous micro and macro engineers, but the Swiss import most of the steel they use, including 15,800 metric tons for the watchmaking industry alone.

“There is a real interest in recycling our valuable resources. We want to keep the metal waste from the factories

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