hello everyone and welcome to another
edition of what's on my desk
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today I have something that looks to be
out of this world from outer space and
way ahead of its time something an alien
would come down to earth with what are
these things
these are tourbillons from Concord from
part of their C1 and C1 Lab series now
you ask yourself a question Concord
really I know Concord to be sort of that
you know B even C brand that's you
know not really all that high-end and
doesn't really fit into the realm of all
these luxury watches from AP and Panerai
and Rolex and so on and so forth well
that's not really true Concord is a blue
blooded Swiss manufacturer they've been
around since 1908 110 years what makes
them actually special today when they
opened up in Basel Switzerland back 110
years ago their whole purpose was to
manufacture Swiss watches for the US
market unlike every other brand that
manufactured for everyone so I brought
with me the Concord Gravity Tourbillon
as well as the Concord C1 Lab
Series Tourbillon now I'm not a nuts and
bolts guy you know that but these two
particular pieces they really do deserve
a bit of a close-up in terms of
functionality and before I get into
showing these crazy ass watches just a
little bit of history on this now again
been around for 110 years this isn't the
first time that Concord decided to make
complicated stuff they've made tourbillons
and perpetual calendars back in the 90s
and what they did is there was these
these watches were sort of like concept
cars the car shows and it would sell out
right there and then at Basel to some
private collectors and then they would
never really even make it onto the
retail shelf and they continued selling
those Saratoga's that traded in the
realm of 500 to 15 two to three thousand
dollars depending on materials that are
used and the special stuff really sold
itself out at every single Basel show so
I'm gonna go back to 2007 this is when
Concord decided to revolutionize
watchmaking to change up their whole
concept of watchmaking and come up with
something SuperDuper different something
out of this world and something that
really defined watchmaking standards as
they were back then
so in O7 they came up with C1 now
they had regular chronographs they had
diamond pieces and so on and so forth
but the most complicated watch was is
this Gravity Tourbillon now why Gravity
Tourbillon I'll show you
you'll notice the tourbillon on this
watch is on its side and therefore it's
perpendicular to the ground if you
remember back in 1801 when the
tourbillon was created by Breguet it was
made for a pocket watch so really cap
the time action adjusted the mainspring
for the fact that gravity had on the
watch when the pocket watch is in its
pocket perpendicular to the ground
beautiful offset dial at 11:00 o'clock
to show the time three day power reserve
the trust index the seconds the way the
seconds displays is really unique they're
really independent seem like that
independent of the watch and they're
actually displayed on top of the tourbillon
cage right here which is really cool
transparent back it is a manual wind
watch they made 25 of these and all
these sold out as they came out at Basel
another cool feature work show and I
guess is the way the winding mechanism
works you have to press that little
button this thing pops out and you get
this nifty little handle to line the
watch if you want to set the time if you pop
this thing out just to go back and
correct myself actually the 2007 they
introduced the C1 but they didn't
introduce this one till about 2008 this
was sort of the pieces gonna take the
Concord C1 Line to the next level
showing the role that a we're not just
gonna do chronographs so I'm not just
gonna do date and time we're gonna make
something super complicated and define
watchmaking and this is when they
introduced this guy
speaking of defined standards this is
the watch that broke an internet a short
two years later this was this came out
in Basel 2009 now mind you between 2007
or 2008 the financial crisis happened so
timing for these guys was a little bit
off you know to go from two three
thousand dollar watches to twenty
thousand three hundred four hundred
thousand dollar watches from 2008 to
2009 was really really hard because the
financial crisis you had companies
like Patek Philippe and Vacheron
Constantin suffering lo and behold
obviously Concord wasn't really having a
good time either but nevertheless in
2009 they did come out with the Quantum
Gravity Tourbillon C1
and this is the watch that broke the
internet everybody went crazy about the
watch what is this thing why was Concord
making these kind of watches where does
Concord get off making this kind of a
watch now let me show you what they made
they're staying within the same
principles that define watchmaking they
make this crazy monster again vertical
or perpendicular to the ground tourbillon
except this time around it's actually
bi-axial so this thing turns around its
axis so this thing actually works on
both axis and as you know as I told you
guys before on this piece it's a
vertical tourbillon defying gravity however
if I turn the watch this way the tourbillon
is no longer effective by making the
bi-axial be on this watch is effective
whether you have in your wrist and have
you hand out this way or your hand down
very clever isn't it now you'll notice
that this thing says energy tank hence
that's the power reserve indicator but
if I turn to watch sideways you'll
notice that the tank is full and you'll
notice he's not just one two three on
the inside of the watch guess what
that's what shows the power reserve
what's the power on power reserve and
it's watch's down that tank will slowly
but surely empty therefore showing the
power reserve not on the dial but in a
vertical display so this thing this
liquid goes up and down kind of reminds
you of current HYT watches they show
time as well with liquid but these guys we're
way ahead of time with this watch
again the same cool concept as far as
the winding mechanism is called this
thing pops in and out by depressing the
button you can wind the watch that way
you have the seconds on top independent
seconds and a really cool way to
actually tick away what the most
impressive functionality of this watch
outside of the bi-axial tourbillon is how
this tourbillon is mounted now I've told
you guys before the difference between a
flying tourbillon versus a regular tourbillon
and all it is is that a flying tourbillon
is suspended on a cantilever arm well
this thing takes it to a whole new level
look at how this bi-axial tourbillon is
suspended it suspended what looks like
quote-unquote a suspended bridge well
that little arm here is being held up by
a slew of miniature wires that actually
hold that arm a place and hold
that entire contraption in place there
for suspending this entire biaxial
tourbillon by the use of this quote-unquote
suspended bridge capability pretty nuts
another cool thing you'll notice about
this watch it has no lugs and the reason
they did it this way this thing is 48
millimeters it's a behemoth and if
you're gonna add a lug system to this
instead of just sort of screwing the
strap onto the side of the case like
this one it will actually be humongous
and too big to wear all I wore this just
a little bit ago
actually where on one of the last
episodes that I take and look I have a
small wrist and I'm able to pull this
for you know they meter watch off just
because of the fact that it has no
lugs unlike the other guy this isn't
made of white gold it would be way too
heavy it's made of titanium and I guess
the last thing to mention and this was
sort of like Concords gimmick they said
you know what they said time and space
and by space
notice how spacial this watch is and it
looks like the watche is half empty just
by the way it's made it looks like you
can literally store stuff in there but
that was the whole concept of giving the
watch space not polluting it with
decorations not polluting it with
beautiful dials and and and an extra
bridges that are necessary and so on and
so forth it was really about defying
time and space and this is what this
watch does pretty crazy a pretty nutty
pieces from Concord well let's talk
money's now and this thing retail around
400,000 distinguished elves around or 80
or 500,000 prices were pretty crazy on
them and they sold like I said right
away at Basel to a couple of lucky
buyers a resale value unfortunately when
you hear the word Concord and when a
watch collector hears the work Concord
the first thing they're gonna do is
they're going to cringe I'm gonna say
Concord I'm not buying a Concord or not
paying that kind of money for Concord
and who knows if the financial crisis
did not take place in 2008 maybe the
Concord C1 Line would have been a
lot more successful but now Concord is
still around they're still selling their
Saratoga's you can go right on their
website and buy their watches right
directly from them from $1,000 to $3,000
or even some of the pieces sell for
$10,000 in gold but they're gonna still
continue to try and push the boundaries
and once in a blue moon you're gonna see
crazy stuff like this from that
I have a feeling it's gonna happen
within the next couple years because
right now the watch market is great and
they're gonna have the time and the
money to put the research and
development into making pieces like this
on an innovative scale I give them an A+
on a look scale I give them an A+ on
functionality I give them an A+ on the
resale value I'm still going to give
them an F and the reason I'm gonna do
that is because you can pick these
watches up at a quarter of its original
price tag and again the only reason
that's going to happen is because it
says the words Concord on the watch
and not Audemars Piguet  well guys I hope
you enjoyed a closer look at these crazy
pieces from Concord c1 collection last
but not least I'm gonna show you what's
on my wrists and today you'll notice I
have a watch on the opposite hand
because I'm wearing the PAM 368 Destro
aka lefty this is one of the later
models of their lefty stuff it's an
eight-day power reserve the original
getting the original one that I actually
used to wear back in the day was the PAM
127 which I absolutely love this came in
a few days ago and I absolutely love the way it looks
decided to throw it on my wrist and wear it
for a little bit let me show you just a
quick closeup of it now I'm not a lefty
on the righty these are made for
lefty's but a lot of collectors out
there prefer this because they don't
really make a lot of them so they become
pretty collectible so they still trade
at retail sometimes over it or close to
it even pre-owned guys I hope you
enjoyed this episode of what's on my
desk I want to thank you for tuning in
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