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Corum launches two limited edition Bubble watches in celebration of the Chinese Year of the Dragon, which commences in 2024.

The new Corum 47 Bubble Dragon.

One debut, the Bubble 47 Dragon, highlights a fanciful golden dragon hovering in a dark night sky.

Black lacquered clouds and a mother-of-pearl moon join the dragon, which is essentially depicted according to the Chinese legend that when dragons hear thunder, they rise to the clouds and “circulate in the sky.”

The new Corum Bubble 47 Dragon Eye.

The second watch, the Bubble 47 Dragon Eye, is a close-up of the year’s star character. The artisanal metal-cast eye on the dial is meant to represent the dragon’s strength and is fashioned in high-relief with hand-painted colors and gold scales.

On both watches, the magnifying effect of the sapphire bubble crystal enhances the multi-layer effect, allowing the viewer a close-up view of the precision artwork. The effect is particularly notable on the Dragon Eye model, which appears to stare directly at the viewer.

Corum explains that both new watches are powered by automatic CO 082 movement, a Soprod automatic caliber that offers a forty-two-hour power reserve. Both watches also sport steel cases darkened with a black PVD finish and a sapphire crystal caseback. Corum will attach a vulcanized rubber strap to each watch. 

Both the Bubble 47 Dragon and the Bubble 47 Dragon Eye are limited editions of eighty-eight pieces. Price: CHF 6,900.

Corum adds five ceramic-cased models to its nautically themed Admiral Automatic collection. 

The Admiral, with its twelve-sided case and pennant-markers, is one of Corum’s top-sellers and is usually fashioned from steel, titanium or precious metal. The new ceramic case option adds a contemporary option within the watchmaker’s Admiral offerings.

One of the new ceramic-cased Admiral 42mm offerings, here with a rose gold bezel.

Corum adds the ceramic option specifically to its 42mm Admiral series, the mid-sized watches set between Corum’s 38mm and 45mm Admiral offerings. Three white-cased models and two black-cased newcomers (one of which is a limited edition) mark the debut.

Two of the white ceramic models also sport a rose gold bezel, as does one black edition. 

The two variations arrive with a matching rubber strap and gold-colored accents while two additional versions in each color sport artistic dials with pop-art markers and accents.

Of these two art-dialed options, the black ceramic model is a limited edition (of 50 pieces, pictured below) and features a luminous ‘Corum’ logo in graffiti-style across its dark dial.

The two white-ceramic pop-art version feature indexes and hands adorned with multicolored paint. One of these two white ceramic options also comes with a rose-gold bezel.

All the new Admiral watches are water resistant to fifty meters and are powered by CO 395, an ETA-based automatic movement. 

Prices: CHF 14,800 (with ceramic bezel), CHF 18,000 (gold bezel) and CHF 18,500 (white ceramic artistic dial with gold bezel).

 

Corum presents a concept watch made from recycled titanium that frames a flying tourbillon and an aventurine stone dial set, quite unusually, beneath the movement.

The new Corum Concept Watch, a flying tourbillon set with sapphire bridges and an aventurine dial.

The technical showcase, which Corum will produce in ‘extremely limited quantities,’ abounds in organic shapes with its rounded openings and gently curved case edges. Its movement appears to float amid sapphire bridges, which expose the aventurine dial below as well as all the movement’s gearing.

Corum powers the watch with a finely wrought flying tourbillon movement beating at 3 Hz (21,600 vph) offering a superior ninety-hour power reserve. The rare vertical gear alignment for the manually wound flying tourbillon here somewhat echoes the layout of the Corum Golden Bridge collection, one of the watchmaker’s best-known designs.

Corum also provides an eye-catch caseback design that again highlights the unusual gear layout. Corum designers have etched pop-art descriptions of the movement’s components adjacent to the caseback opening. 

The window whimsically highlights the tourbillon, mainspring and gear train with brief descriptions of the primary functions of each component.

The new watch only measures 39.5mm in diameter, which is unusually small for a complicated Swiss-made concept watch. Corum notes that the moderate size opens up the field of customers for the piece, which will fit on any size wrist. 

The bracelet here echoes the case and is crafted from recycled textiles and can be additionally adjusted using Corum’s own specialized bracelet adjustment system.

Price: $465,000.

Corum teams with French street artist Aiiroh to create the Corum Bubble 47 x Aiiroh, the latest result of Corum’s artistic Bubble collaborations.

The new Corum Bubble 47 x Aiiroh.

The black-PVD-coated Bubble is a limited edition of eighty-eight pieces with a dial inspired by Aiiroh’s “Black Série Rose” artwork.

The 47mm watch continues a series of Bubble debuts Corum has created in the twenty-two years since the Bubble’s debut. The Swiss watchmaker has teamed with many artists and creative sources, more recently with Elisabetta Fantone, rapper Booba, and cymbals manufacture Paiste.

On the dial of the new Corum Bubble 47 x Aiiroh, a rose-shaped blackened aluminum grille tops a colorful collage of street posters, which also form a rose shape. 

Corum explains that its artisans used two different dial appliques to add depth and dimension to the Aiiroh-designed dial. The Bubble’s thick, domed crystal adds a pleasing layer of optical intrigue to the Pop-Art-inspired design.

Inside the 47mm Bubble Corum fits its automatic caliber CO 082 that offers 42 hours of power reserve. Check the sapphire caseback to view the Soprod-built caliber. Water resistance is 100 meters.

Corum will offer the watch with an artwork made by Aiiroh and Japanese modern artist Namisen, which was then made into a piece in resin by French visual artist Soyz Bank. This ‘sculptured wall art,’ inspired by Corum’s watch certificate, is created as a flat painting, semi-folded, and finished in resin.

Price: $8,000.

Corum broadens its nautically themed Admiral collection with the watchmaker’s new three-dimensional patterned dial, previously found only on the collection’s 38mm and 45mm cases. Corum now places its Grenadier fendu dial, designed in house in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2019, on new models within the Admiral 42 Automatic collection.

A new blue-dialed example of the Corum Admiral 42 Automatic.

The twelve-sided (dodecagonal) Admiral, with its colorful sailing flags, was first seen in 1980. Originally a square-cased watch when it debuted in 1960, Admiral has since 1980 been offered in myriad versions, including those displaying time-only, as a chronograph and even hosting complications.

Most recently, Corum has launched numerous contemporary iterations of the Admiral with monochrome dials and sailing pennants.

The six new Admiral 42 watches boast two dial colors (blue and black), with each dial color offered in three models: stainless steel case and bracelet, a stainless steel case with matching alligator leather strap and a stainless steel case with a rose gold bezel and crown, matching alligator leather strap with triple folding clasp.

The Admiral’s signature pennants line the outer chapter flange in minimalist outline form alongside minute indexes. Corum finishes the dial with applied hour markers and white SuperLuminova-coated Dauphine skeletonized hands, a date window and a small seconds subdial.

And finally, Corum powers the Admiral 42 Automatic with the CO 395 caliber, visible through a sapphire screwed-in caseback. Prices: $4,600 (steel) and $7,600 (with rose gold bezel).