Corum – the Key to stylish timewear

Fifty years is just a blip in the long history of horology. But, Corum, founded in 1955, is a young watchmaker that achieved significant distinction. Rene Bannwart along with his cousin Simone and her father Gaston Ries founded the Corum watch brand in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. They were dedicated to the ideal of ‘innovation’ in style.

Sans-Heures

One of the early Corum models of the young watchmaker was getting ready to be displayed in a major exhibition in 1958. In one of the brand’s marvelous moments of serendipity, the dial supplier of the new Corum model failed to deliver the dial in time.

Improvising at the last minute, Bannwart procured substitutes, but these only had Corum printed on them. The hour marking had been left out! With nothing else to do, Bannwart decided to call the model “Sans-Heures” (without – hours) and displayed the watch. The concept became an instant hit and has been copied by almost every watch maker in the last 50 years.

Corum has always been about style. From the outset Rene Bannwart was obsessed with the questions of style. Why do so many watch makers keep producing variations of the same old style, decade after decade? Could not something fresh and new be done? And so, style innovation held the key to Corum during all these 50 years. Admiral’s Cup, Coin watch, Romulus, Golden bridge and Bubble are all models with distinctive style. One of the most exquisite and unusual design is their famous ‘Rolls Royce’. RR which features the trademark Rolls Grille as the body and face of the watch complete with a tiny hood ornament. Their styles are strong and unique and their craftsmanship very high.

Admiral’s CupCorum is the first brand that set the stage for ‘Haute Horologerie’. The famous regatta, the Admiral’s Cup Race was first held in 1957 and the Corum Admiral’s Cup was introduced three years later in 1960. Admiral’s Cup is available in 40 mm, 41 mm, 44 mm and 48 mm as well as in versions with chronograph complication or just time and date. Other than the most distinctive design, Admiral’s Cup went well beyond stainless steel and gold in its use of material. Admiral’s Cup challenge Regatta 2007 uses titanium and rubber fusion as materials of construction. With no full stop to style, the most audacious material ever fused in the watch making industry was a limited edition, Admiral’s Cup made in Tungsten – one of the heaviest materials in the world.

Romulus

Introduced in 1966, the Corum Romulus was the first watch ever to display the hour numerals on the bezel. It engraves the laurel crown in honour of Romulus, the founder of ancient Rome. Romulus is sought after by all watch collectors.

Golden Bridge

In a striking combination of imaginative style and technology, Corum designed this watch around a linear movement. Then the designer decided to put four sapphire sides in order to make the movement look like a floating bridge in mid- air. The Golden Bridge comes in 18 carat gold or platinum. A stunning piece from Corum!

Coin watch

One of the most recognisable Corum watches - the Coin watch, is still available almost 50 years after its debut. The $ 20 {lsquo}Double Eagle’ or the $ 10 {lsquo}Liberty’ gold coins are delicately sliced in the middle to form the dial and the back of the watch. The obverse and the reverse side of the coin hold the movement between them. As the supply of these gold coins began to diminish from America, the demand for the Corum Coin watches reached a frenzy. There are other copies of the Corum Coin watch but for a man who is looking for a distinctive style, copies are just not good enough! Corum’s passion for design innovations yielded in many other products including Corum Bubble as well as Admiral’s Cup Challenge 44 Split Second Chronograph Watch.

Stepping into America

The Bannwart family continued to manage Corum till December 1998. In the 50 years of existence, Corum brands have been incredibly popular in the US more than other parts of the world.

American businessman Severin Wunderman who had been keeping an eye on Corum for many years acquired the company in 2000 with his personal finances and named it as Severin Montres Ltd. Wunderman’s son, was the President of the company and in 2007, a great horologe professional Antoine Calce, joined him as the CEO.

They both want to carry forward the renowned motto of Corum. The watch brand displays the kind of creativity and innovation that plays a major role in setting new trends, something which it has always been at ease with and firmly intends to continue in the future.

If you are looking for style, sport a Corum.

Its buckles and crown would have been signed with Corum’s distinctive ‘key’ logo that says “This is the key to style”.

This first appeared in Smartbuy section of BusinessLine of Sep 3rd, 2008

Horology at its Olympic best

The Olympic Games at Beijing will put all previous editions in the shade as far as time- keeping equipment and staff is concerned. Time keeping and data handling for the 302 competitions being held at 38 venues is expected to involve the use of 250 tons of equipment and well over 300 technicians and engineers.

70 large electronic score boards will be required. Before the equipment were shipped from Omega’s factory in Biel in Switzerland, the whole arsenal of special timing devices, photo camera, display boards, transponders and touch pads would have been thoroughly checked.

Omega triggers the trend

This is a far cry from the Los Angeles games in 1932 where official time keeping by a watch company was introduced for the first time.Omega’s subsidiary Lemania manufactured stop watches with chronographs to be used for the first time in Olympics. Omega of course, has the distinction of being the time keeper of the Olympic Games for the 24th time at Beijing.

As the quadrennial games moved from Los Angeles to Berlin in 1940, Omega supplied 185 chronographs roughly 6 times the number as in Los Angeles. The company had to then deploy a full time repair squad to attend to the chronographs. In 1948, London witnessed the camera with a timer for the first time from the Omega company. Londoners nicknamed the gadget as the ‘Magic Eye’.

Helsinki in 1952, received Quartz technology from Omega for the first time. It is at Helsinki, that time recorders could record one hundredth of a second for the first time. First semi automatic timing device with a digital display known as the eight-o-matic swim timer was introduced in Melborne in 1954.

The 1960 Rome games witnessed the first black African Abebe Bikila winning a gold in the marathon. Omega once again recorded the time. First full electronic time keeping was introduced in Mexico City in 1968 where Omega introduced ‘touch pads’. At the 1976 Montreal games, Nadia Comaneci created history by scoring a perfect 10. Omega’s electronic score board was not designed for displaying 10.0, so the score was shown as 1.00. Omega’s tryst with the Olympics continued at Moscow in 1980, followed by the 1984 Los Angeles games again and then to Seoul in 1988.

Swatch takes the baton

The younger and the more illustrious of the family, Swatch, took forward the mantle from Omega for the next three Olympics. Atlanta, Sydney and Athens chose Swatch for time keeping. Swatch brought 20 innovations to the 1996 Atlanta games. The most notable was the ‘Global positioning system’ in the centenary games.

Swatch GPS measured time for sailing regattas. Sydney in 2000 witnessed the time keeper Swatch utilizing the internet for the first time. Within 15 seconds of the winner hitting the touch pad, the results appeared on the net. By the time Olympic Games returned to Athens in 2004, 108 years had gone by from the time of the first Olympic Games in Athens. Athens witnessed 44 times as many participants and 7 times as many events as in 1896.

Swatch did the time keeping for the event that was watched by 3.9 billion people around the world on television. Time keeping for Beijing Olympics is once again with the Swatch group but moved back specifically to the Omega brand. Visitors to the Chinese Metropolitan Museum can admire the very stop watch that was used to measure the time in the 1932 games. To commemorate the event, Omega has produced a limited edition ‘Pocket watch 1932′ hand-finished in 18 karat gold. Each one is worth Swiss Francs 95,000.

25 and still ticking

As the Olympic Games returns to London in 2012 for the second time, Swatch Group CEO, Nickolas Hayek has already signed a contract with IOC for Omega to be the time keeper to the Olympics for the 25th time. As Nick Hayek explains, “our commitment to the Olympics games is much more than just a name on a display board or a screen. All of the Swatch Group companies share the core philosophy of the Olympic movement, which celebrates humanity more than anything else.” Games, sports and adventure have pushed time keepers to constantly innovate. The contribution of Olympics to the world of horology is immense.

Not surprisingly, watches specially manufactured for the Olympics are a great hit amongst collectors. Enjoy Beijing’s time keeping with the Swatch group!

This first appeared in the "Smartbuy" section of BusinessLine of Aug 20,2008