Corum Miss Golden Bridge ladies watch, featuring exposed baguette manual winding movement, in a tonneau shaped case of polished 18Kt rose gold, with sapphire front and back, presented on alligator leather strap with pin buckle.

Ever since its debut in 1980, the Golden Bridge has been an enduring favourite within the Corum portfolio. For a young brand whose design signatures were daring, often flamboyant collections, with a clear sense of joie de vivre in their styling, the Golden Bridge demonstrated a capability for innovative technical watchmaking, while still staying true to Corum’s highly individual aesthetic values.

Employing the services of master watchmaker, innovator and inventor Vincent Calabrese to design and create a purpose built calibre within the limits of a vertical axis, the unique baguette movement also doubles up as a functional mechanical sculpture and the focal centre of the piece.

Suspended in total isolation in the centre of the display, with no dial or other detailing to distract attention, the movement is a fascinating study in micro engineering, and its component parts are plated in rose gold for the bridges and gear train, with silvered wheels for the crown-operated functions. Compressing all of the elements normally found in a conventional round movement into the restrictive confines of this narrow linear format may have been a challenge, but the result is quite literally a work of art, and Corum have presented it as such.

Unsurprisingly, the Golden Bridge lends itself perfectly to this elegant feminine form. The gentle convex contours of its long and slender tonneau case, and the large sapphire crystals creating a luxurious gold and glass exhibition case for the iconic ‘baguette’ movement within. At a mere 21.3mm across it is relatively petite and reserved, yet it still stands out among its contemporaries, combining beautiful styling and technical prowess.

With sapphire crystals above and below, the available light floods in to the otherwise empty chamber, allowing uninhibited viewing and appreciation of the centrepiece from every angle.

Thanks to 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.