Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Charlie Paris Concordia Automatic Kraken
An accessible, blacked-out diver with a Swiss heart from maturing Parisian microbrand.
It can be hard to get excited about “another dive watch” from “another microbrand,” but the latest Concordia Automatic Kraken from French-based Charlie Paris is not your typical offering. The stealthy aesthetics, Swiss automatic and comfortable depth rating push it above familiar Seiko or Miyota-powered divers that currently flood the market. Charlie Paris isn’t a newcomer, but many will be unfamiliar with the Parisian brand. Founded in 2014 by childhood friends Ambroise and Adrien, there’s already a healthy portfolio of affordable men’s and women’s watches. Designs are fresh, innovative and definitely worth a look.
The Charlie Paris Concordia line comes in a few flavours and features both automatic and quartz variants, but the Kraken is the blacked-out, under-the-radar piece without a quartz counterpart. The names generally describe the look, like Concordia Dune with gradient brown dials and so on, but the Kraken is head-to-toe dark shades of grey, including the case, dial, lume and strap. The 316L stainless steel case has a PVD coating and versatile dimensions of 40mm in diameter and 12.5mm in height (lug-to-lug is 47.5mm). This allows it to be worn for most occasions without a focus on aquatic adventures, despite a pro-level water resistance of 300 metres. There’s a 3mm domed AR sapphire crystal on the front and a sapphire exhibition case back, which is impressive for the price. The unidirectional rotating bezel has a case-matching, anodized aluminium insert with useful yet minimal Arabic numerals and marks. The tapered screw-down crown is both stylish and oversized for easy manipulation and has an anodized aluminium insert.
The dial of the Concordia Automatic Kraken is a sandblasted black with applied round indices, broken up by rectangular markers at 3 and 9 o’clock. A colour-matching date window occupies the space at 6 o’clock. All indices are filled with black Super-LumiNova X1, along with the hour and minute hands. The lollipop seconds hand has a square aperture with black lume as well. A simple minute/seconds track circles the outermost perimeter and the overall vibe leans a bit to the Oris Divers Sixty-Five, but it’s also its own thing for sure.
Many Charlie Paris watches have Miyota automatics, but the Kraken (and Concordia automatics) feature a Swiss Soprod P024. It has 25 jewels and beats at 28,800vph (4Hz), and the power reserve is a respectable 40 hours. Functions include central hours, minutes, hacking seconds and date. The rotor has a black ruthenium galvanic treatment to match the blacked-out theme, but the calibre is otherwise undecorated. It still presents well through the sapphire back. Soprod was a good choice in this case as the bridges and plates are actually machined in France. It’s based on the ETA 2824-2 and is accurate to within 14 seconds per day.
The Concordia Automatic Kraken isn’t a Swiss-made piece in spite of the movement and is hand-assembled by Charlie Paris watchmakers in Paris. It comes with a colour-matching 20mm leather or nylon strap with quick-release levers and steel pin buckle, and all Charlie Paris watches have a two-year warranty. The retail price is EUR 875, which is solid given the 300-metre depth rating, 3mm domed sapphire crystal and Swiss Soprod automatic. For more information and to place an order, please visit charlie-paris.com.
Sponsored post: This article is sponsored by Charlie Paris. However, it reflects the writer’s opinion and has been written according to MONOCHROME’s editorial policy.
