Concord C1 Dinner 10 Dec 2007

First off, I would like to thank Concord /Cortina / Horomundi (in association with Prestige) for hosting this nice event. Great hosts, good time catching up with some WIS mates, meeting interesting new folks and pretty decent food to boot too... oh and there were the watches of course ;)

to start off, some press pics ... the carbon fibre black subdials
version is one of the nicer examples in the metal

i like this image... somehow makes me think of
seahorses and nautiluses ;)

these events are great to catch up with watch loving folks... the usual suspects...Dick cracking me up with his robot dance moves ;)

Stefano and me with our sporty OVERSIZED watches
love em both of course :)

the dinner setting

made some new friends, my dinner companions... Ms Anne-Valerie Compain, International Communications Manager for Concord, MGI,
& Ms Arifin, who is beginning to take an interest in horology

by my side was CH and Linda, a great watch loving and collecting couple.. Linda wore a B&R for the nite but do go here for an insight into her acquisition
of the LUC Chrono One *link* ... CH, thanks again for letting me put my fingerprint smudges on your interesting Corum Golden Bridge

the 2 best looking pieces in the C1 lineup impo
modelled very ably by Anne-Valerie

Movement is an ETA Valgranges (oversized 7750?) i only like em on the
rubber straps...maybe cause of the rubber on the bezel...

a heavy duty monster in RG...the other nice watch of the night
but it does come with a pretty hefty price tag too (excuse the crappy pics
as I am still figuring out my camera settings for low light pics)

I thought this could have been done better...the black criss-cross
net on the orange didn't appeal to me... the other watches,
Big date and the silver faced ones weren't my cuppa

Overall impressions

The positives are that Vincent seems to know what he wants (which is very important) and he is setting out to achieve it with a zeal & passion (which is also very important). He also shared with us on the thinking behind coming up with the C1 and putting all the watches that had gone before in Concord aside and also a bit of a sneak preview on the future lineup with an interesting variation to the tourbillon which was all good.

On the watches itself, the 2 I noted above are pretty decent but the price points are important considerations. The asking price of the rosegold C1 is about that of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Rosegold Rubberclad. On the design, I find it somehow overwrought to a degree but this is purely my subjective view and others may like it as it is.

It will be interesting to see how Concord develops over time, as we should be mindful this is just their first salvo, and I am sure there will be more interesting things to come from them. My best wishes to the team there in reviving the brand and to taking it to new heights.

cheers
raph