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Attractive opportunities for Porsche Design Chronos

1K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  jaeva 
#1 ·
Porsche Design introduced quite a few of their new designs at Basel World last week, and it appears as though they may be attempting to move their prior, Eterna manufactured, watches through grey market channels at very attractive prices to clear the decks for their new models Their prior chronos, in particular, are attractive: classic designs (PD was Steve Job's favorite watch brand, he would keep a box of them in his office), Eterna manufacturing, typically with Valjoux 7750 movements. PD deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Braun and Nomos as Bauhaus philosophy design houses. I picked up a tasty example from Joma Shop today at a very attractive price. Below is a post of mine from a thread last week on the Public Forum, going into a little more detail on the firm.
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PD severed its ties with Eterna a year ago and just announced a new collection at Baselworld last week: Bauhaus Comes to Basel: The Porsche Design 1919 Eternity Collection › WatchTime - USA's No.1 Watch Magazine.

I think that they may be trying to flush a lot of inventory through the grey market to clear the shelves as these new watches arrive in stores this spring.

I kind of like the new models, it's as if Panerai, Nomos, and Porsche Design had a three way that resulted in a lovechild-the 1919 collection.

Porsche Design is primarily a high-end lifestyle/fashion brand, but with unique horological and automotive credentials. The founder of PD was Ferdy Porsche's son, and himself designed the iconic Porsche 911 car. The brand has forty years of design excellence in a number of categories. Their manufacturing partners have been first rate (IWC, and more recently Eterna). And they have had real horological milestones: the first all black watch (dial, case, and bracelet), in 1972. In 1978, working with IWC, they introduced the Titan Chronograph, the first mass production all titanium watch. In 1982 they introduced the titanium Ocean 2000 diver, with a then unprecedented 2000 m depth rating, and distinctive integrated bracelet. The Bundeswehr subsequently used the Ocean 2000 for military divers.

For a small design house they have been a remarkable innovative force in the watch industry, and may be as responsible as anyone for the widespread adoption of titanium.

Their best watches, IMO, tend to be all titanium reworkings of their 70's and 80's chronos, which are designs that hold up very well over forty years to my eyes.

So: there may be a short term uptick of PD watches through grey market channels, but a lot of those watches have a distinguished brand pedigree and design chops that may make them worth a look.
 
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#11 · (Edited)
PD is one of the most respected names in design, while they don't make anything their watches, pens, armchairs are made by the best brands in their business.

This guy was the first "ambassador" of the watch in Formula 1, 1976 as far as I remember:



At that time it still had the 7750 (one of the first batches, no decorations whatsoever), when the Valjoux movement was discontinued (like the Primero) they switched to the 5100 and it became of the hottest chronos of the 80s, worn Cruise in Top Gun (actually it was lent by a real pilot who found Tom's watch too "gaudy" and unprofessional like) and Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills Cop II.

Nobody ever complained about the logo or the lenght, by the way Porsche and Porsche Design are NOT the same company.

Of course the inspiration for the case design were the gauges in the dashboard of the 911:

 
#9 ·
I love my PD 6620 chrono with the 7753 movement. It is easily one of the nicest looking movements especially with the BBS style rotor they have. Sure they do some wonky things with design and strap integration, so it ends up being not for everyone, but I for one see quite a bit of value in the "racing theme" they try and pull off and pull off quite well.

I'll post a pic of the movement here when I get a chance
 
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