The Corum Golden Bridge – Unique and Incomparable Masterpiece

Those appreciative of the “less is more” school of thought, will find great beauty in the Corum Golden Bridge watch.  A stunning realization of “complex simplicity”, the Corum Golden Bridge suspends the essence of its purist mechanical soul in a straight-line bridge crafted from a bar of hand-engraved solid gold.

The Golden Bridge watch is a stunning design, and one which is unique.  Drawing from the original design by famed independent watchmaker Vincent Calabrese, Corum has developed this unique manually wound work of art to the point that it has become a real icon of elite watchmaking prowess.  Slightly redesigned from its original form, the current version of the Golden Bridge timepiece has a bolder, more visually dominant tonneau shaped case.  Expansive sapphire windows on all sides of the case give a fantastic view of all angles of this stunning manual-wind mechanism.  It is rewarding and a nearly meditative sight to wind this Corum watch. and see the transfer of energy to the mechanism and witness this exquisitely beautiful miniature machine come to life. 

As dress watches go, this one has incredible presence, and is as much a work of art as it is a fine timepiece.

Ulysse-Nardin GMT +- Perpetual Calendar Watch – User-Friendly Haute Horlogerie

With as much complexity as a mechanical movement in a fine watch possesses, it simply makes good sense for the watch brands to design timepieces in such a way that they are user friendly to begin with, and even then, take into account the bugaboo of human error which occurs now and again. After all, no one wants to have to be separated from their prized perpetual calendar or minute repeating watch for eight months, while it is being serviced in Switzerland due to some mistake in the setting or operation process. Recently, I wrote about the F.P. Journe Sonnerie Souveraine watch, and the devoted work of Monsieur Journe to create a nearly foolproof grande sonnerie mechanism. But, this is only one shining example–this trend is taking root across the fine watchmaking industry.

One of the best examples of a brand who takes user-friendliness to heart in the design of their timepieces, is Ulysse Nardin. Take for example their highly innovative, useful and beautiful GMT± Perpetual Calendar watch models. Rather than using a traditional system of comparatively fragile cams ,levers, and springs in the calendar mechanism, Ulysse Nardin brilliantly chose a system of circular devices (epicycloid wheels, Maltese crosses, etc), which allow the calendar functions to be set in both directions–truly a quantum leap for a perpetual calendar!