The admirable Corum Admiral’s Cup collection has delighted countless marine and sea enthusiasts for half a century. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of this legendary collection, Corum has created the Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon 45, an exceptional watch housing an exceptional movement combining two of the most prestigious horological complications: The tourbillon and the minute repeater.

About one month ago, I only had some sketches of this long-awaited watch, and at that time I even didn’t know its exact name. But I was impressive about the unique design it featured – a no-dial watch. As seen in the picture, there is no dial in this ingenious model, or maybe we can view the sapphire crystal, which used to be applied to protect the dial, as the dial of the Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon 45 timepiece. Engraved on the sapphire crystal are golden index chevrons and minute numbers, as well as inscription “Corum”, “Minute Repeater”, and “Tourbillon”.

As one of the iconic collection, the new watch features a 45mm case in 18K red gold, which is extremely recognizable thanks to its legendary polished and satin finished twelve-sided bezel. For a sporty watch like this, it is unquestionably too risky to have the minute repeater’s push-piece extending out which may get caught and potentially damage the mechanism. So the new Corum watch has been manufactured with a pecific bezel which winds the minute repeater function by rotating the bezel 27 degrees clockwise. This ingenious system keeps the pureness of the case line and the integrity of the ringing mechanism, and offers water-resistance up to 30 meters.

It is not common-seen that a minute repeater has been featured in a watch with the marine connotation. However, in my view, that function is really a good match to such a watch. As is well-known, a sailor’s life is punctuated by different ringing tones, from ‘action stations’ in the morning to the evening ring. Associating a minute repeater with the new function is therefore a good way for Corum to pay tribute to the universal connection to the acclaimed Admiral’s Cup collection.

The new Admiral’s Cup watch is powered by an innovative Corum movement: the CO 010 caliber, of which the development and adjustment of this exceptional movement took two entire years’ work of a dozen of Corum’s best watch-making craftsmen. The result of these intense years of craftsmanship is a micromechanical masterpiece of 14¼”’ – with a diameter of 32 mm, and a thickness of only 5.35 mm, which ensures a hand-wound power reserve of 72 hours.

Through the sapphire crystal, we are allowed to appreciate the visible complexity of the revolutionary movement: each surface has been finished by hand; circular-grained components, black polished steels – in particular the strike-hammers and Tourbillon Bridge – circular-grained decoration of the plate and Côtes de Genève finish of the bottom bridges. It is said that more than 140 hours are necessary for a Master Watch-Maker to assemble the movement’s 319 components, with an additional 10 hours to ensure perfect sound and notes. So there is no doubt that the Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon 45 will be extremely limited: only ten pieces will be produced through the end of 2010.

]]> http://www.watchestrends.com/corum-admirals-cup-minute-repeater-tourbillon-45-a-no-dial-watch.html/feed 2 http://www.watchestrends.com/sea-swirl-of-sharks-nivrel-tourbillon-is-a-rare-charm-wednesday.html http://www.watchestrends.com/sea-swirl-of-sharks-nivrel-tourbillon-is-a-rare-charm-wednesday.html#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:46:47 +0000 http://watchestrends.com/sea-swirl-of-sharks-nivrel-tourbillon-is-a-rare-charm-wednesday.html
We know that watches are expensive vorticity. Small complex movements are at a premium based on difficulty of manufacture and the prestige of owning one. The bar has been placed high enough with all the variations of multi-axis eddies and whirlpools flight giving a great view of the action. What ever happened to just swirl base? Since most watches are vorticity for $ 50k and up, the owners of such luxury feeling the need to cope up with a good number of appointments of gilding and fantasy to justify the price. This is typically the case with most watches tourbillon which feel more like a novelty than as something interesting every day wear. But it doesn ‘t need to be this way.

The Nivrel Wednesday series has always been a diver line a ‘s watch that I admired. I know Nivrel de ‘s reputation for building quality and meticulous attention to detail (what else you would a German manufacturer seriously watch), and now I know they are slowly entered the Thursday vorticity with the sea of sharks. Why it isn ‘ta called shark sea, I ‘ t know. I ‘t know that I ‘ d want to go swimming in a place called the sea of sharks.
Sea sharks could be demonstrated swirling Nivrel ‘s first. They put ‘t make the movement, but it’s OK. They are enough to make it look nice. The vortex is shown on the face under a bridge next substantial. It is a vortex core without tendrils of fancier ones, but I imagine this is about $ 30k, this is a case in the world of whirlwind. The movement itself is quite robust. It is manually wound movement power reserve of 120 hours (with an indicator on the face of the watch) that has been polished up by Nivrel. There is no see through the rear window, but you wouldn ‘t expect to watch because it is fully capable of diving with a water resistance of 3000 meters (yea, like more two miles under water). Case size is 42.5mm wide and the entire show is a strapping 18.5mm deep. The bracelet also includes a clip extension diving. This could be the only other real shows vorticity diving other than the fifty fathoms Blancpain Tourbillon.

Looking left ‘s model for a moment. This isn ‘t a nice watch, but he has a sober sense of purpose and usefulness to him. It is beautiful as Rolex Yachtmaster is beautiful, but instead of saying I pay people to polish the wood on my yacht light, indicates the Nivrel I take pride in polishing the wood myself. It doesn ‘t hurt Nivrel Wednesday that the shark has a striking similarity to Yachtmaster one or the other. Adjustments of retrograde date indicator in well, and I love the red balance across the dial face unlike the black and gold frame. Still, there are good indicator of applied power reserves. You can la ‘t help but like the hands of blood-relation inclined stabbing, and indicators of hours of rich angular lume are functional and look serious. It la ‘shows SA has served to indicate the time, not a watch that shows the time as doubts.

Speaking of gold, it is widespread on the sea of sharks. The frame is really massive gold with the numbering of relief, and (good) bracelet has large insertions between or steel. Then you have the entire crown of gold round just outside the eye. This is a serious tool shows with accents of luxury, not a luxury watch in the stricter sense. There is no glitz and glam. No exotic materials or construction superb. German technology fair really rough with a full Swiss movement. This begins to look like an advertisement for German car. Anyway, check Nivrel of sharks and sea, you won ‘t be disappointed.