Porsche Design

In the pantheon of major auto shows, Paris is right up there with Geneva, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Detroit and, increasingly, Shanghai in terms of prestiege and importance to automakers. The City of Light is home turf for Peugeot, Citroën and Renault and thus an ideal place to pull the covers off their latest voitures. However, foreign makes also like to save some of their best for this biannual Galic get-together, and the 2010 rendition is no exception.

Even as wet-blanket-wielding outside forces loom ever larger – and more and more eco-friendly concept and production models are trotted out in hopes of appeasing said forces – the industry showed it still isn’t ready to resign itself to building self-guided toasters on wheels just yet, having debuted a fleet of fast and exciting cars, some more ready for the showroom than others. Some of these new rides are even quite green while still managing to be mean. Here, in no particular order, are our 10 favorite premieres from Paris.

Amazingly, it has been 25 years since Porsche Design produced a diving watch. Company founder Prof. F. A. Porsche penned the first one back in 1983, the Ocean 2000. As such, the company wanted to make a big splash by doing what they do best - innovate and stylize Porsche branded accessories. The watch blends a silver-colored stainless steel container with an anthracite-grey titanium bridge structure for striking contrast.

Not only does the watch look uber-cool but it has the performance chops to hang with the best. Capable of handling dives up to 1000 meters and offering a luminous dial with excellent readability in the dark abyss of the ocean, the P'6780 also provides mechanical ETA 2892-A2 caliber automatic movement for precision and reliability.

It is an interesting phenomenon that one particular accessory can so define an era and an individual the way the original Porsche Design shades did for Yoko Ono. Maybe that was a little over the top, but starting in 1979 and all through the mid-eighties, these shades were worn so much by Yoko Ono that they became widely known as the Yoko Ono sunglasses. This look graced the cover of albums, magazines (like the Rolling Stones) and at press conferences. These re-released Porsche Design P'8479 sunglasses are updated with Beta-Titanium, a new material used in space travel that is both lightweight and flexible. The visible screws running along the outsides of the frame make for futuristic yet retro look, like Mad Max meets Giselle.

When you've spent the day whizzing around in your 911 Carrera 4S and you are ready to relax and take a nice little cruise what's your preference of marine vehicle? Why not opt for the Royal Falcon Fleet RFF135 by Porsche Design? You dig their cars, so why not cop one of their yachts? Sure, other manufacturers have tried to blend automotive and nautical themes, but we've come a long way since the days of the Mercury Villager Nautica Edition.

Porsche Design recently dipped their toes in the water when they designed speedboats built by Fearless Yachts back in 2007. Other manufacturers have been testing the waters as well, just not to the same extent. Last year we saw the Audi Q7 Coastline and VW Caddy Topos Sail Concept take their respective parent companies one step closer to an aquatic future. However, this year, Porsche has cast off with a serious big boy toy.