Concord RE-Launches the Mariner

Baselworld 2014 marks an  historic milestone for Concord - the reintroduction of the Mariner.  Historic - since it seems Concord has a serious change of heart in regard to its older collections.  When Concord recently relaunched the Saratoga, I thought this sudden nostalgia was a once off deal, but a second relaunch proves Concord has renewed faith in its past.  Although the C1's , 2s  and Clabs are still quite hot, a brand of this size comprised entirely of one idea has limitations. The C hype has faded.  Its been five years ago since the Baselworld 2009 release of the QuantumGravity Tourbillon. An entire company - HYT - started by former Concord CEO Vincent Perriard - was built on its hydro mechanical concept.  

 Even though I blogged quite a bit about the C models - I could not fathom how a company could throw away all its previous and well loved collections.  I was terribly sad to see the production of Deliriums and La Scalas stopped.  La Scala is actually one of my favorite Ladies Watch.  The Delirium's and La Scala's ,still available on Ebay and on quite a few watch sites, have not lost their place in the watch world.  I personally think there is a definite market for new models of  old collections.
It seems Movado Group. owned Concord has finally realized that the C collections ,no matter how cutting edge and cool, is not enough for Concord.

 Of course the newer models of old collections are modernized.  In the words of Concord..
"This Iconic Collection has been updated to reflect a modern and beautiful sense of style"

The Mariner Collection is supposed to evoke an "ahoy there" feel; even engraved with the wind-rose logo on the case back. However, I think the watch collection can stand on its own as a really elegant  sporty timepiece without the Nautical nuances.
The mens 41mm models  have a really great automatic Sellita movement, beneath an engaging anthracite dial and housed in a stainless steel case.  A ETA quartz movement lies beneath a silver-toned dial. The watches are only water resistant to 50 meters which is not really ideal for waterways. The indices and hands are Rhodium plated and treated with Superluminova. 

The white mother of pearl dial upon the  30mm ladies timepiece is punctuated by 12 diamonds. A stainless steel case houses an ETA quartz movement.  An Anti-reflective treatment is applied to the scratch resistant sapphire crystal enabling read-out at high noon.

One collection I am eager to welcome is the Concord Delirium.
I suppose we will just have to wait and see.

Concord CEO jumps ship.

The CEO of Concord, Vincent Perriard, has resigned from Concord. He is now joining an entirely different kind of watch company ,TechnoMarine-a lower end; higher volume company. It will be interesting to see if Concord will continue its voyage through the galactical influences of watch design like the Quantum Gravity Tourbillon or turn back time and restore production of the iconic Concord Collections such as Delirium, La Scala and Saratoga.
The Quantom Gravity Tourbillon definitely has a place in time and space; however although the craftsmanship is outstanding and the design out of this world, I feel the watch is targeted specifically to die hard Star War fans. It is a watch I have blogged about with much interest and I was particularly entranced by the strange green goop that measured power reserve - Not a watch for everybody, but highly creative non the less. Click here to read more about the Quantum Gravity Tourbillon.
Although the new Concord Collections such as the C1's are awesome, I kind of missed the iconic Deliriums, prolific La Scala's and captivating Saratoga watches.

Ultra-thin Swiss Watch found in 400 year old tomb in China!

No matter how you wrap your head around this watch mystery it's a real puzzler. I have looked at a million different websites to gain some sort of perspective on this mystery, but I am still puzzled. If you have any insight, please help me out.

Read related article here

Last month, archaeologist were caught by surprise when they found a 100 year old tiny swiss watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years ago. They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant's funeral. This discover occurred while the archaeologists were filming a documentary with two journalists from Shangsi town.


But inside they uncovered a distinctly tonneau-shaped miniature watch in the shape of a ring marked 'Swiss' thought to be just a century old. The mysterious timepiece was encrusted in mud and rock and had stopped at 10:06. Watches were not around at the time of the Ming Dynasty and Switzerland did not even exist as a country, an expert pointed out.

"When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the coffin, suddenly a piece of rock dropped off and hit the ground with metallic sound ," said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the Guangxi Museum.

"We picked up the object, and found it was a ring. After removing the covering soil and examining it further, we were shocked to see it was a watch," he added. The Ming Dynasty - or the Empire of the Great Ming - was the was ruling dynasty in China from 1368 to 1644.

The People's Daily reported the watch had stopped at 10:06 am, and the word "swiss" was engraved on the back.

Now there are several things I found weird about this story:
a) The watch was found in a undisturbed 400 year old tomb.
b) The watch is tonnneau-shaped. Tonneau shaped watches was unveiled by Cartier in 1906
c) The watch is extremely slim and if the watch is 100 years old its thin case can be compared to Concord's Delirium 1 which was unveiled in the 1979 - the flattest analog watch ever made at under 2mm.
d) The tiny size of the watch. It seems a ring watch but the clasp seems so small. It could have been a cuff link which was quite popular at one time.
e) The watch has the words "Swiss" on it rather than "Swiss Made"; however, there were many fakes made in that time so the word "Swiss" meant little.
f) The news articles all claimed the watch stopped at 10:06 AM. Why AM? It does not seem to be a 24 hour watch. Why not PM.?

So now I have asked loads of questions, I have a few scenarios. Not all are mine some I picked up from web pages, black back round with stars twinkling about them ,writing about time traveling objects and tiny holes in time and space whereby objects slip through into other dimension. I am sure you can come up with your own too. Please share!

a) This 400 year old tomb had previous visitors, and one such visitor was wearing a tiny ring watch on her baby finger.
b) This watch is not real but rather an advertisement gimmick used to promote the new torneau shape. This watch could have been placed on a store front mannequin. In the early 1900's there was no T.V or Internet to announce new styles, companies had to be inventive like creating small gimmicky models of their products.
c) This watch is actually a time traveler that fell through a doorway in the early 1900's and arrived 400 years earlier to rest beside a tomb.
d) This whole thing is a hoax, a clever marketing ploy for something or other.
Remember the You-Tube Cellphone popping popcorn sensation?


Well I suppose only time will tell!

2008's Ten Most Everything Watches!

There are quite a few watches that have stuck in my mind as the most memorable watches of 2008.

The Girard Perregaux ww.tc 24 Hour Shopping Watch has been judged by the Prix Official de la Revue des Montres 2008 in Paris as the most beautiful women's watch of 2008. Prestigous luxury shopping locations are indicated on the watch such as Bond Street, Rodeo Drive and Madison Avenue and Ginza a distinctly exclusive shopping area with astronomical rents in Tokyo. This watch is the companion to the men's ww.tc 24 Financial which tracks the opening and closing times of the Worlds Financial Market. The Girard Perregaux has a automatic GP033 GO movement which is found in Girard-Perregaux cats eye collection. By adjusting the left crown, the outermost dial ring moves to switch between timezones. The bezel and the dial sports 80 diamonds. Elegant whimsical numbers seem to float on the cloudy surface of the dial, like the view outside a plane window travelling to any one of those shopping destinations.

The Concord C1 Tourbillon Gravity was awarded the title of "Watch Design of the Year." at the Grand Prix de Geneve in November.



Ebel 1911 Perpetual Calender Chronograph the watch that most resembles architecture.
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Romaine Jerome's Day and Night Watch only tells one whether it is Day or Night. So in my books this is the most vague watch of 2008.

The Watch comprised of the weirdest materials is: Romaine Jerome's Moon Dust Collection the next in its DNA of famous legends line of Watches. These watches are made out of:

• Fragments of the Apollo XI spacecraft

• Fragments of the Soyuz spacecraft

• Dials with mineral structure containing Moon dust

• Fibers from the International Space Station Space Suit

As you recall in the last Collection Romain Jerome had crafted watches from remnants of the titanic.




The most diamond studded watch: The Tourbillon Diamants. with 58 carats with 480 baguette diamonds.
I had blogged about Girard-Perregaux Cat's Eye Haute Joaillerie Watch just yesterday but with 394 baguette diamonds and weighing 52 carats slightly less than the Blancpain.


The most Testosterone Charged Watch:
Zenith Defy Extreme Zero G Multi-Dimensional Tourbillon watch. Now don't tell me you don't agree. Be a man and wear your Zenith Defy. Lurk on the edge of danger and defy danger. Grrr!


The most innovative watch of 2008: De Grisogono Meccanico timepiece. This watch may look like it is digital, but in actual fact it is completely mechanical.


The ugliest Watch of 2008: Angular Momentum Oriental BlossomTime Cushion Watch Collection
I hope I have not offended anyone, but really now. This watch reminds me of one of those shower caps one wears when one does not want ones curlers to fall out at night. What is that red dot in the middle again? Looks a bit creepy to me.
Concord Delirium Mini Ladies' Watch 18K Yellow Gold Silver Dial Diamond Bezel

And finally .... Most sorely missed Watch Collection of 2008: Concord Delirium.

Since 1979 Concord Delirium have been gracing the hands of many watch wearers with its ultra thin watch movements. No longer will these watches be featured in advertising campaigns or unveiled at Basel World. However all good things must come to an end.

So many innovative and remarkable timepieces were unveiled in 2008, a year of economic struggle and global financial uncertainty. The timepieces were specs of light in a dark bleak landscape. Hope. Watch Companies have been through tough times and some like Blancpain went into temporary hibernation, but Watch Companies pulled through. And even though the World of Luxury Items is hurting, watch companies continue to produce and to unveil more brilliant, innovative and awe inspiring watches. Each new watch is an island of hope in a sea of despair.

Thank you to all my readers and much success in 2009.

Concord's slim and delicate Delirium.

A century ago, in Bienne, Switzerland, two young swills craftsman had an ambition to create watches with thin sleek proportions... and so Concord was born.
Concord has been a pioneer in the watch industry. In 1915, Concord produced the first private-label luxury watches with diamonds and precious metals. Concord watches was once the official gift of U.S. Presidents to visiting heads of state. In 1979, Concord made leap in watch history when Concord unveiled its ultra-flat Swiss quartz movement with the Delirium. The Delirium was a mere 1.98 mm thin. The next year Concord broke its own record by the introduction of the Delirium IV with a remarkable reduction of just under 1mm. Concord still holds the record for the thinnest watch in the world.

In 2004 Concord commemorated the silver anniversary of the Original Delirium, and unveiled the new Delirium XXV Collection. This collection includes diamond encrusted 18K gold quartz as well as limited edition hand-winding mechanical timepieces.

The new Concord Delirium Collection is vast, catering to a wide range of unique tastes. The Concord Delirium Manual Wind is a watch with deliberate taste and style. The mechanical movements are mesmerizing as they can be viewed through the see through dial.

The new Concord Delirium includes this glittering Diamond encrusted Watch. Every diamond is carefully chosen to enhance the clear delicate beauty of the watch. This watch will compliment a woman on her evening out, mirroring her radiance.