Shy Creation Bracelet

Over a century ago, five visionaries founded Concord Watch. Two master watchmakers — Walter Hugenin and Charles Bonny — and three financial partners set out to create the refined luxury watches for which they are known today and initially had their sights set squarely on discerning American consumers.

Established in 1908 in Biel, Switzerland, Concord has long been recognized for its sophisticated timepieces including its collections of what are widely known as jewelry watches, which, depending on the striking model, might feature 18-karat gold cases, an integration of rubies or emeralds or eye-catching rows of prong-set, single-cut diamonds adorning the bezel. Concord provided these timepieces to fine jewelry houses such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels in the early 20th century.

The brand’s innovation quickly outpaced its competitors, as Concord became one of the first watchmakers to produce private label watches set with precious metals and gemstones, and during the 1940s, the manufacture of its sleek modernist timepieces included models made from coins. An ad during the 1950s touted the brand's Coin Bracelet watch as a “Symbol of Elegance.” 

In 1970, the North American Watch Company — under the leadership of Gedalio Grinberg, a Cuban businessman who had relationships with Piaget, Omega and other manufacturers — purchased Concord as well as Movado.

With Grinberg at the helm, Concord debuted its revolutionary Delerium line in 1979 — which included the thinnest watch ever designed at less than 2 mm thick — just as the Swiss watchmaking industry found itself challenged by the quartz crisis. During the 1980s, the brand experimented with watches that were marked by a marriage of sportiness and dressiness, which yielded the Mariner as well as the Saratoga collection. In 2008, Concord was awarded the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for its C1 Tourbillon Gravity.

Today Concord is a subsidiary of Movado.

Find vintage Concord Watch bracelets, brooches and watches on 1stDibs.

Rooted in centuries of history of adornment dating back to the ancient world, modern jewelry reimagines traditional techniques, forms and materials for expressive new pieces. As opposed to contemporary jewelry, which responds to the moment in which it was created, modern jewelry often describes designs from the 20th to 21st centuries that reflect movements and trends in visual culture.

Modern jewelry emerged from the 19th-century shift away from jewelry indicating rank or social status. The Industrial Revolution allowed machine-made jewelry using electric gold plating, metal alloys and imitation stones, making beautiful jewelry widely accessible. Although mass production deemphasized the materials of the jewelry, the vision of the designer remained important, something that would be furthered in the 1960s with what’s known as the “critique of preciousness.”

A design fair called the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes” brought global attention to the Art Deco style in 1925 and gathered a mix of jewelry artists alongside master jewelers like Van Cleef & Arpels, Mauboussin and Boucheron. Art Deco designs from Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels unconventionally mixed gemstones like placing rock crystals next to diamonds while borrowing motifs from eclectic sources including Asian lacquer and Persian carpets. Among Cartier’s foremost design preoccupations at the time were high-contrast color combinations and crisp, geometric forms and patterns. In the early 20th century, modernist jewelers like Margaret De Patta and artists such as Alexander Calder — who is better known for his kinetic sculptures than his provocative jewelry — explored sculptural metalwork in which geometric shapes and lines were preferred over elaborate ornamentation.

Many of the innovations in modern jewelry were propelled by women designers such as Wendy Ramshaw, who used paper to craft her accessories in the 1960s. During the 1970s, Elsa Peretti created day-to-night pieces for Tiffany & Co. while designers like Lea Stein experimented with layering plastic, a material that had been employed in jewelry since the mid-19th century and had expanded into Bakelite, acrylics and other unique materials.

Find a collection of modern watches, bracelets, engagement rings, necklaces, earrings and other jewelry on 1stDibs.

Can you pull off a vintage pocket watch? Of course you can. With a suit and a waistcoat, a pocket watch can be a refreshing alternative to a wristwatch.

The earliest pocket watches were luxury items, and, owing to cost, they weren’t commonplace until the 19th century. Artfully crafted pocket watches were a symbol of wealth, and manufacturers such as Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe became known for theirs. (Today, they’re among the most sought after by collectors and enthusiasts.)

At the onset, pocket watches resembled small round table clocks, and pulling your small round table clock — perhaps of the silver variety — out of your breast pocket in front of someone else demonstrated unequivocally that you cared about punctuality. For collectors, pocket watches are big, and that means a larger canvas provided for functions without crowding the dial. For example, the Marius Lecoultre pocket watch — made circa 1890 — does everything but uncork your wine.

In the late 1800s, the open-face pocket watch became a staple on the American railroad. It was a requirement for railway workers to wear a pocket watch, as the timepieces were responsible for keeping conductors on schedule. This was a boon to the watchmaking industry, with companies like Hamilton, the Elgin National Watch Company and the Waltham Watch Company producing high-grade and workingman’s watches.

By the 1930s, wristwatches comprised the bulk of watch manufacturing in America, superseding the pocket watch. Suddenly, if you wanted to know the time, you merely glanced at your wrist. But given their vintage charm and our general appetite for good design, pocket watches are a piece of statement-making jewelry and today can prove complementary to your formal attire in a manner that is stylish and unconventional.

Let time take its course — browse a vast selection of antique and vintage pocket watches available on 1stDibs designed by legendary brands such as IWC, Cartier and more.