Horological Meandering

Corum (re)Considered

 

Plugging “Corum” into the search function here at PuristSPro yields some pretty lean results. There is virtually no discussion about the brand or its watches, and until I saw some of their new watches recently, I too had never really given the brand much consideration. I was certainly aware of the Admiral’s Cup, Golden Bridge, and Coin collections, along with some iconic designs from the past, such as the Bubble and the Ingot, but that awareness never turned into desire.

That started to change when the Ti-Bridge was introduced a couple of years ago. With this watch Corum turned what had been an interesting design on its head (well, really its side) and the use of titanium in what I had only associated as a dress watch was a pleasant surprise. (Of course I see titanium everywhere in the world of watchmaking now)

Then this year I noticed a new watch regularly advertised in the Wall Street Journal. It was the Deep Hull, a massive 1000 meter diver’s watch, and it too captured my attention. Looking at other introductions from this year and I started to see some common themes.


Within the Admiral’s Cup collection, Corum is toning down the use of color on its dials, an aspect of the collection that was a turn-off for me. The trademark hour marker flags in the Deep Hull, along with other attractive new watches such as the Centro Chronographs (both the 44 mm Monopusher and 48 mm model), are now rendered in black and gray. The use of color is now much more subtly done:


For those who need a truly massive watch, there is a 50 mm Admiral’s Cup watch, which correctly puts the crown and pushers on the left side of the watch:


Taking a cue from Panerai, Corum is limiting the production of its watches. The Deep Hull, for instance, is available in two versions, one in a Grade 5 titanium case (500 pieces) and the other in a black PVD titanium case (355 pieces).

The Bridge collection is evolving to include solid dials that surround the movement, both to give a better background to the hands for reading the time and for avoiding staring at ones arm hairs through the watch, while still showcasing the mechanism.


New this year is a slimmer ladies version, called the Miss Golden Bridge, which is stunning, especially with a diamond set bezel.


Having read up on Corum’s history, I credit this transformative repositioning to former Panerai executive Antonio Calce, whom Corum hired in 2005 to head operations, and then promoted to CEO in 2007. In addition to bringing more focus to Corum’s primary watch lines, he has brought distribution under tighter control and reigned in the retail network. It will still take some time for the market to sense the consistency in Corum’s product and message, but I think the brand has made tangible progress towards that goal.

While the Bridge watches feature a proprietary movement, the other collections use movements sourced from outside suppliers, most typically La Joux-Perret (Deep Hull) and ETA (7753 for the Admiral’s Cup Chronograph watches). The movement of the Centro above is attractively, if unremarkably finished.


I have tried on the Admiral’s Cup watches shown above and both the 44 mm and 48 mm models  on the black rubber strap are quite comfortable, though forget any thoughts of getting the Deep Hull under a sleeve! I am looking forward to watching Corums’s continued progress, and can even see myself getting one as a “fun” watch to complement my otherwise “serious” collection.

Bill