Corum Golden Bridge Stream: The Cornerstone Of Time Measurement

Founded by René Bannwart in 1955, the Corum brand instantly stood out for its genuine bias towards watchmaking creativity. Intent upon exploring new territories, the Maison, based in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss Jura and represented by the skywards-pointing logo, decided to make a name for itself by producing watches with unusual forms and movements. As early as 1957, it rolled out the Golden Tube, a piece said to be the source of inspiration for the Golden Bridge model. The piece housed an unusual mechanism and was developed for Corum in 1980 by the watchmaker, Vincent Calabrese. Its design was based on a linear calibre inspired by a model developed by Jaeger-LeCoultre for ornamental carriage clocks in the 1950s.

Corum Golden Bridge Stream

A bridge between past and future

Thirty-seven years later in a bid to reconnect with its roots, Corum revisited the piece with a view to endowing it with some new aesthetics. To achieve this, the Maison drew its inspiration froma major trend in contemporary architecture: the streamline concept. Spanning the decades from the 30s to the 60s, the concept was originally born in the United States around the same time as the first objects to roll off the series-production lines and is characterised by its highly dynamic, fluid curves.This analogy is at the root of the Golden Bridge Stream.

With this iconic reference and illustration of the company's expertise, Corum passes a new milestone in mechanical creativity. Embodying the ultimate fusion of substance and form, each component constituting the movement of this Art Deco-inspired piece is fundamental to the unique style of this inimitable watch. They are its very heart and soul.

Suspended in the march of time

Purists will appreciate the maker's efforts to emphasise this uniqueness, and the more knowledgeable aficionados will see a parallel between the movement fitted with sliding linear mass and the refinements seen in the automatic winding mechanisms produced by the Pierce watch company in the 1930s. The link between the two will no doubt consolidate Corum's choice of construction principle for the Streamline. The baguette movement, complete with distinctive automatic winding system housed within a 42 mm gold case with its straight lines, orbroken or smooth curves forming the unique architecture of the piece, represents a symbolic bridge. The Maison's watchmakers purposely devised an elaborate decoration in a visual nod to the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The allusion is not without meaning. In fact, one of the two gold models available in a limited edition of 88 pieces boasts a microstructure reworked in red lacquer to underline the graphical similarity with the celebrated San Francisco bridge. It is perhaps a way of underlining the consistency in the stylistic approach adopted for the Golden Bridge Stream and the creative link with the Maison's founder, for whom uniqueness and originality are the very definition of luxury.