Today I’m promoting a watch! Yes, I won’t do a review on this one as the company can’t send it to me because it is in very limited edition. But don’t worry, they sent me another new watch from their collection on which you all will be very excited as it looks really cool. I think it will be live in a month, so look out for it!

Today the watch is the Concordia from a French brand called Charlie Paris. The company was founded in 2014. All their watches are designed, conceived and assembled in France. They founded Charlie on a simple idea: Make the watches they dreamed of, timeless pieces with singular lines, Made in France and sold at the right price. Today they have a hundred resellers around the world and their own shop in Paris where you can see all their collection of watches and of course the Concordia. I won’t go into details about the watch as I don’t have it on my hands and I can’t tell if it is good or not, but hope this will help you if you consider buying it! 

INTRODUCTION

On January 13th 2019, the adventurer Matthieu Tordeur completed the expedition of his dreams : crossing the Antarctic in total autonomy, over nearly 1150km at only 27 years old. An exceptional fight that lasted 52 days in temperatures down to -50 degrees. He thus became the first French and youngest explorer in history to ski from the coast of the Antarctic continent (Hercules Inlet) to the South Pole solo, without assistance and in total autonomy.

We designed and developed the CONCORDIA to meet the extraordinary requirements of this expedition. Amagnetic, waterproof up to 300 meters, the watch can withstand extreme temperatures, down to -70 °.

ABOUT THE CONCORDIA

Why CONCORDIA? Concordia is the name of a research station based in Antarctica, one of the three stations inside the Antarctic continent to operate the whole year !

The collection comes in an automatic version of 40mm diameter with rotating bezel and a more accessible quartz version of 38mm diameter. These two versions are available in three colors each : blue, black, and steel. All watches are numbered and it’s a limited edition (200 quartz, 200 automatics in total).

AUTOMATIC CONCORDIA : the Antarctic-proof watch

The Automatic CONCORDIA is the watch that was worn by the adventurer during his expedition. With its rotating bezel and indicators of very readable hours, it adopts a sporty and elegant design

• Made in France : Assembled in France, in Besançon
• Case : 316L Steel, 40 mm diameter, 12.7 mm thickness, polished and brushed. Non-Magnetic ISO764.
• Dial : Index and luminescent needles in Super-LumiNova®.
• Bezel : Unidirectional rotating, aluminum insert, hourly graduation and special symbol at 12h
• Caseback :Screwed steel, with the logo “Objectif Pôle Sud” and the number XXX/200
• Movement : Swiss Mechanical self-winding, caliber ETA 2824-2 elaborated finish. Twenty-five rubies. 28,800 vibrations per hour. Autonomy of 40 hours.
• Glass quality : Domed Sapphire, Anti-glare, 2.8mm thick
• Crown : Screwed with aluminum insert
• Water Resistance : 30ATM, 300 meters/1000 ft

“The watch has always been one of the most important tools for explorers. This is even more true in Antarctic where sun is shining 24/7 and where the watch was my only time marker in this frozen desert. Mechanical watches are also much more reliable in the cold compared to electronic equipment. ” Matthieu Tordeur

From the looks and specs, I can tell it sounds like a very well made and thought out watch as it survived very rough conditions with Matthieu on that expedition. I really like that automatic version with a blue dial.

The price for the automatic version is from €795 and the quartz from €295

Here is the link where you can buy both quartz and automatic versions of the Concordia: charlie-paris.com/pages/concordia

I also had an interview with founders of the Charlie so here it is, enjoy 🙂

1. Introduce yourself

We are Ambroise and Adrien, two childhood friends and co-founders of the French watch company Charlie Paris that we launched in 2014 with the simple idea: make the watches we dreamed of; timeless pieces with singular lines, make them in France and sell them at the right price. Historically, genesis clockmaking was located in France. We, therefore, wish to develop this wonderful heritage by combining both the times of tradition and modernity.

2. What started your watch passion?

What we love in horology is to be able to match creativity and technicality. There are so many technical constraints linked to the construction of a watch, but that’s exactly what promotes creativity, attention to details and that’s what is exciting !  You really work to the tenth of a millimeter when you design a new watch and if you lengthen the size of an index of half a millimeter it will change the entire haromie and design of your watch. The emotion that such an object can procure is fascinating.

3. What makes a good wristwatch to you?

A good watch is a watch that inspire a singular emotion. For us, the emotion should come from three complementary elements. The first one and the most important is the outside beauty of the watch, the design. It should be singular, remarkable and timeless. We believe that tomorrow’s watch is the one you already wear today, it’s the one you’ll be able to keep all your life. Then, it’s the inside beauty of the watch, the movement. As Coco Chanel said, “Elegance is when the inside is as beautiful as the outside” and we think it applies perfectly for the watches. If you have the budget to afford an automatic mechanical watch, we think it brings a real extra soul to your watch. Finally, the third element is the story told by the watch. We believe that the story should be both inspiring and authentic, it must be true and rooted in reality, but it also must make dream us. We think a good watch should have a great “really telling” instead of a great “storytelling”.

4. What watches do you have in your personal collection? And maybe you could list them or tell an interesting story about one particular one?

I don’t really have a watch collection yet but my father has some beautiful watches that I have been watching for a long time! It Includes a limited edition watch from the French brand “MAT Watch” developed for an elite corps of the French army which is really amazing.

5. Who is your ideal customer?

Our ideal customer is someone who appreciates both the design of our watches and our vision of the world. This can be both a watchmaking enthusiast who already has several watches or someone who comes to offer his first beautiful watch at Charlie Paris.

6. Tell about what you like to do outside of watches. Where do you find inspiration for your work?

We met when we were boyscouts at the age of 11, this taste for adventure, wide open spaces and hiking in nature has never left us as you can see with our two collections : GR and more recently Concordia. Also, as real Parisians, our city, is our main source of inspiration, its inhabitants and their ”Parisian way of life and elegance”, its café, monuments or exhibitions…. It’s an everyday inspiration with anything this marvelous city has to offer.

7. How do you see your watch brand in the future?

In France, we have an expression that says “feet on the ground, head in the stars “and I think this really characterizes us at Charlie Paris. We have big dreams for our brand and a vision on the very long-term but we want to achieve it at our own pace, to build something beautiful, solid and meaningful. Our business models are more like big Maisons like Hermes that have taken decades to grow, than startups that grow very quickly but fail as fast.

8. Are there any other new watch models coming later this year?

Yes, our two main releases of the year will be two new automatic watch collections. First, a collection of women’s automatic watches with a diameter of 36mm. Second, the declination of our GR collection which was a real success last year in an automatic version. We also have other projects underway, I invite you to follow us on Instagram where we often reveal new projects in advance if you want to know more and give us your feedback!

9. What was the hardest part of creating a watch company?

In 2014, we were the first French watch brand to launch with a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Today, when you go on websites like Kickstarter, there are lots of new projects. But then, when you look at how much survive after 2 years, there are just a few. So, I think the hardest thing is not to start, but it is to grow and pass the milestone of 2 years. In addition to a good management of the company, I think it requires to have its own vision of the world, a vision that must be singular, authentic and inspiring. And for that, we must give time to time.

10. Any suggestions to someone who wants to make their own watch company? Where to start? What to take in consideration?

I suggest someone who wants to make his own watch company to launch it with a watch that he really could have bought himself, and not target a clientele that he doesn’t know perfectly. With this, I think that all is then easier. Then the most important and not so easy is to gather a “team of success” which believe in your project and that will have complementary skills than yours to work with you.