13th August
2008 (Wednesday), 7pm, Sincere Watch Academy (SWA) CORUM was established in 1955 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
This forward thinking company strives to be refreshingly different and bring collection which conveys excitement and
passion. The collection is based on four key pillars - Admiral’s Cup, Romvlvs, Golden Bridge and Artisans.
Today, the topic was on one of the CORUM Icons - the
Golden Bridge.
Entrance to SWA...
Deepa Chatrath (Regional Managing Director of CORUM), Fabrice Dangeli (Director of Marketing Corum),
Patrick Tan (Head of SWA) and the Watchmaker from Corum ( apologies, did not get his name).
A staff was at the entrance to welcome the attendees.
This session was packed, and the early birds were having some light refreshments...
At 7:05pm, the session began. Patrick Tan gave a short welcome ...
and then introduced the speaker of the evening...
Fabrice Dangeli
(Director of Marketing Corum). The evening session consisted of 2 parts.
Fabrice to give a short run-through of Corum and the Golden Bridge.
Then the watchmaker continued to demonstrate the partial assembly of a Golden Bridge movement.
Farbrice commenced ....
While the watchmaker on standby....also as the technical backup for the evening.
Have a look at the room ...
Every corners were taken up ....
A Corum wall-clock ... its a practise for each brand to bring their own clock and 'paintings'....
The tagline - " Unlock and Conquer" ...
The message on the 'painting'...
Ms. Deepa Chatrath (Regional Managing Director of CORUM) observing...
The animated Fabrien...
The cool watchmaker (with a Romvlvs with a power reserve at 7'o clock position) listening attentively...
Oh... was something not supposedly to be disclosed ?
Another Corum Executive....in deep thoughts... guess what was she wearing?
Looked like a Admiral's Cup Competition 40 Stainless Steel with bracelet...40mm diameter, seemed to fit well on her.
The Golden Bridge watch was designed by Vincent Calabrese around 1980. After which Corum continue to improve on
it to make it more robust.
Some key slides which are informative....
Missed out asking about the magical 4X number '3'?
Coincidentally on the 4 lug-areas, each has 3 lines
The initial piece ( very beautiful to me, the pictures are near to the end of the post) , the crown was directly to the barrel
and the power reserve was also not long.
Corum redesigned the winding system and shifted the crown to the lugs-side and extend the power reserve to 40 hours.
Total 97 components, and seems to be difficult to assemble.
Yearly production, was reluctantly mentioned, not more than 1,000 pieces.
The Golden Bridge collection also adorned with diamonds...
The talk was done, and a demo was about to start.... Patrick was helping to adjust the special projector which could
project the movement which the watchmaker working with onto the screen.
While the watchmaker was assembling...
Fabrien continued to narrate....
What was he wearing? Definitely an Admiral Cup piece...but could not confirm which model.
** Fabrice replied, it is a Admiral's Cup Tides 48.
Attendees were paying attention and trying to follow each step the watchmaker was working on...
A tray consisting movements and cases for the attendees to view.
After 15 minutes, the Golden Bridge was completed. The reason it was so fast , the major modules were already done beforehand.
Patrick summarised and opened for Q&As.
Just a question or two...the talk session was completed.
A close-up shot of this smiley watchmaker...
This attendee was serious... examined the movements...
While some proceed to take care of their stomachs...
A few went to view and try the watches ....
Presenting the Golden Bridge Pieces
Tonneau shaped case with 4 see-through-sapphire windows.
2 pieces of top and bottom convex sapphires and 2 flat pieces for the sides, creating a movement suspended in the mid-air.
The curvex surface should wear nicely on even small wrist.
Looking through the window ...is the baguette movement , dimension 33 x 3 x 4.9mm.
Mechanical, V700 VMF,CO-113.
Hand-wound
by a stem (at the shorter side of the casing) with slipping spring.
The main-plate and bridges are in 18K WG or RG and hand decorated.
Variable inertia balance adjustable by 4 inertia-blocks.
A zoom in pic ... the variable inertia balance wheel on extreme left....
The barrel is on the right.
Now for the interesting part. Back to roots ...
This Classic piece is wonderful, faceted. As if you like wearing a set huge piece of emerald cut.
( a 1 Franc for reference of diameter 23.20 mm)
A side view . Can you find the crown?
A surprise...
Yes, that's the pointed Crown
How to grip the crown and wind??? Will it leave a mark on my skin?
Ingenious! A flip and loop appearred. Turn to wind and pull out 1 step to adjust the time.
The crown was pulled out... observe there is a recess for the loop. (Ok, I need a macro lens)..
The crown returned to position. Observe the sharp point...it is an optical illusion!
A side-by-side look of past and present
For comparison, the current Golden Bridge is 32 mm X 50.50 mm.
1 Franc is about diameter 23.20mm .
Now for the some 'Jewelery Bridge' pics ...
18K WG Paved-set with 66 diamonds (total 1.26 carats). Grade not mentioned.
The signed crown with the 'Upright Key" logo.
The founders Gaston Ries and Rene Bannwart, decided on this Upright Key logo, " La Clef du Temps Parfait",
the key to perfect time in 1955. Later the motto became "key to beautiful time".
In January 2000, Severin Wunderman and his son Michael bought over the company. And Michael took over as President
on 2004. As of now, CORUM could be the only three independent family-owned company.
A view showing the curve down lug. The casing side-wall looks thick, to be structurally strong.
While viewing this picture, I wonder how the sapphires were fitted onto the casing.
The open-worked hands are in 18K black gold.
Beside the WG is the 18K YG....
The RG is the top piece...
Have clients asked if possible to put in another bridge or movement... should have sufficient space for current casing...
Not forgetting the buckle...
Wrist-shots The Classic
Looks cool! However it may not be water-tight.
A friend whispered, with crown at the back....a feature of the Futurematic. Coincidentally, a forummer also posted a beautiful
vintage Atmos which has very similar construction as the Golden Bridge. Please
click here to read.
Back to the future...to the present!
Hey....can be worn either crown facing out or in!
However,
per CORUM's spec, the winding stem should be at 6'o clock position. So
the above wearing position is technically correct
This is the 18K YG casing.
The WG casing...the yellow lights slightly tinted the watch. See how well the watch sat, the strap also flow nicely ...
Another shot at slightly different angle...notice the reflection on the sapphire crystal...does not seem to be AR coated.
No answer when asked why the convex sapphire is not anti-reflective coated.
Other Admiral's Cup Collection displayed ...
Admiral's Cup Challenge 44
Admiral's Cup Tides 48
Admiral's Cup Competition 48
The buckle is really huge!
Caseback of the Admiral's Cup Tides 48
About 9:45pm, nearly all the last attendees left.
That's all for this session.
A question ....which colour of the Golden Bridge do you prefer? RG, YG or WG?Thanks.
Kong
** Link to presentation slides please
click here .
Added Fabrice's reply about the model he was wearing...
This message has been edited by Kong on 2008-08-26 00:18:50
Added link to presentation slides ...
This message has been edited by Kong on 2008-08-28 00:20:10
