vincent perriard

TechnoMarine Watches CEO Vincent Perriard Jumps Ship

It has been a crazy couple of years for Vincent Perriard. About 18 months ago he suddenly left his CEO position at Concord watches to join TechnoMarine during their brand "relaunch" (which I discussed here). Things seemed to be going quite well. The charismatic Perriard had some very good ideas for the brand and their new direction as exhibited last March during Baselworld 2010 seemed positive. Now at the end of 2010 news has suddenly come in that Perriard left his CEO role at TechnoMarine. What happened?

TechnoMarine's new vitality is more or less attributed to a capital injection by Christian Viros, who presumably worked with Perriard to get him aboard. In a very short amount of time Perriard was able inject TechnoMarine with a new lease on life with a relatively strong new design direction as well as the clever "Ocean Addict" marketing campaign. Just as we were all looking forward to seeing what would come in 2011, he suddenly left. Under Perriard in 2010, TechnoMarine reportedly grew by 34%.

According to TechnoMarine, the break was peaceful, and instead of lining up another CEO, Christian Viros will step in and take a more lead role in the management and direction of the brand. Perriard is rumored to claim disagreements with the TechnoMarine board who presumably shared fundamental differences of opinion with him on the direction of the company. Sources further indicate that Perriard is working on a new project. Something "post crisis," which seems to allude to a higher-end luxury project that will shows its face when economic times are (hopefully) soon better.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: ceo, christian viros, technomarine, vincent perriard, watch

Concord Watch's CEO Vincent Perriard Resigns, Joins TechnoMarine

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Concord and I have had a funny little brief history as I have not been as kind to their watch designs as they would have hoped for. I reviewed such watches at their "$$$,$$$" priced Quantum Gravity Tourbillon with less than jovial enthusiasm. Concord even responded to me via their CEO Vincent Perriard who admirably defended the brand, and his ideas. It was a sign of his dedication to his position and the brand that he helped rebuild. Now that dedication has waned and Mr. Perriard has resigned from Concord, to be effective as soon as possible. He will now take the helm at TechnoMarine, a wholly different type of watch company fitting into a lower end segment with much higher volume production.

I have to ask myself whether this move was prompted by Mr. Perriard's outgrowing of Concord, or vice versa. There have been many critics (such as myself) of where Concord strayed during its "re-birth." Others seemingly loved it as a few of the watches even received design awards. Though I suppose not all was well, and now the critics may have prevailed as Concord might have the possibility to offer arguably more "marketable" watches under new leadership (as of now still undecided). I can't speak as to the sentiments on each side of the table, but I sense a degree of "bad blood" as it appears Perriard ditched camp before his time was due - leaving Concord floundering to fill the position and delicately plan its future. We will see what types of new ideas Perriard can breathe into TechnoMarine that has traditionally enjoyed a fair amount of market success.

Via WorldTempus (in French).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: ceo, concord, resign, swiss, timepieces, vincent perriard, VincentPerriard, watches