The Golden Bridge by Corum is a truly stunning men’s watch, featuring an iconic baguette manual winding movement, in a polished 18Kt rose gold tonneau case with sapphire front and back, on alligator leather strap with pin buckle.

A brand more commonly associated with setting standards rather than following them, since its foundation in La Chaux-de-Fonds in1955, Corum have been synonymous with daring, avant-garde, even flamboyant styling. Always eyecatching and often surprising, Corum have acquired an almost cult status among collectors who prefer something different to the mainstream, yet who take quality, workmanship and individuality very seriously.

An enduring icon of the Corum collection, the Golden Bridge is a stunning glasshouse showcase for an exceptional and legendary watch movement. An ambitious design concept, Corum enlisted the services of master watchmaker Vincent Calabrese to create a fully functioning and of course precise, vertically configured manual winding movement, and the result, which debuted in 1980 is a work of innovation and invention, worthy of the accolades it would receive, at a time when it seemed that traditional watchmaking values were resigned to history, thanks to the dominance of inexpensive quartz watches.

Compressing all of the component elements of the universally used round caliber into a fascinating linear arrangement, with the balance and escapement providing a constant animated interaction at the twelve, and its bridges and gear train detail in gold, the movement itself would form the watch’s golden bridge and the focal point of the watch.

Beneath the gently domed sapphire crystal, this delightful slender baguette mechanism is completely alone, suspended within the void of its glass and gold chamber. There is no dial at all, and the effect creates a remarkable sensation of space, light and isolation. Almost like an important museum exhibit, the watch is designed to afford maximum visual appreciation of the central masterpiece within.

Because of the unique top-to-bottom profile of the movement, the crown, being directly connected in-line, is perfectly located at the 6 o’clock position, and so, as with the internal display, the contours of the elegant tonneau are pure, refined and unmolested.

Turned over, the underside of the movement is further exposed through the sapphire caseback, as light floods into the dial-less chamber from the back and the front.