Today I visited the Corum booth at BaselWorld. I’m very excited to see their first boutique open in our home market, Aventura Mall in Miami, and impressed with the pieces and their presentation. It was also interesting timing, since the news just broke that Corum has been acquired by China Haidian Holdings Limited, marking the first time a Swiss watchmaker with the “haute horlogerie” distinction has been bought out by a Chinese company. Here’s your look at what I saw:
Today I visited the Corum booth at BaselWorld. I'm very excited to see their first boutique open in our home market, Aventura Mall in Miami, and impressed with the pieces and their presentation.
The first watch they showed me was the Corum Admiral’s Cup AC-One 45 Regatta. This watch has most of the classic features of the Admiral’s Cup collection, but has a new automatic caliber.
Here we have the Corum Admiral’s Cup AC-One 45 Chronograph, in all yellow – yes, 100% yellow! It is a new design for the flagship collection, and comes in different colors, but we chose to highlight the yellow piece.
The following piece is a big seller for Corum, as they said it is starting to gain big momentum – the Corum Golden Bridge Automatic. This watch turned plenty of heads when it was first presented in 1980. Since then, the Golden Bridge from Corum has been a perpetual source of fascination, appearing in tourbillon versions as well as a new automatic interpretation in 2011. The mainplate and bridges are made of white gold, and feature a hand-crafted vertical guilloché motif accompanying the linear motion of the oscillating weight. The new Corum Golden Bridge Automatic comes with a brown or black crocodile leather strap.
Next up we have the Corum TI-Bridge Automatic Dual Winder. This is a world first for the new TI-Bridge, coming with a dual winder and automatic CO 207 caliber, designed and patented by Corum. The case is titanium, and has a single barrel placed at 3 o’clock that gives the watch a 72-hour power reserve. I saw this watch in titanium, but it also comes in red gold.
Finally, I saw the watch Corum launched this year at Baselworld – the TI-Bridge Lady. This is the first lady model for the TI-Bridge, and it is held in place by four diamond-set crossbars. Its horizontal baguette movement is framed by a white ceramic case, giving a beautiful, slender design.
I was impressed with the pieces Corum launched this year, and will be interested to see where the brand goes with its new owner – I think only good things will come in the future for the brand.
