The Golden Bridge is one of the most famous models by Corum, and this year, 2015, marks the 35th anniversary. Back in 1980 it was the first in-line or baguette movement, based on a design developed from 1975 to 1977 by Vincent Calabrese, young watchmaker from Naples, who had patented it as Horlogerie Spatiale, but, in the middle of the quartz crisis, he was finding it difficult to find a watch brand who could develop it. René Bannwart and Corum gave him the opportunity, and from then on, the Golden Bridge has been in continuous production.
The calibre CO113 movement consists of 140 components in a rectangular arrangement, 33 mm in length, 3 mm in width and less than 5 mm in thickness. The mainspring barrel provides a power reserve of 40 hours. This year, the Golden Bridge is made with a black ceramic case, with sapphire windows above and on the sides. It is made in men’s and women’s versions, and the latter is particularly elegant in the slim curving tonneau case, perfectly integrated with the crocodile bracelet. The men’s model has an innovation that was introduced in 2013, a sapphire caseback metallized with a series of fine vertical rhodium lines. These reduce the image-transmitting power of the caseback, so that when you have it on your wrist, the hairs, freckles, whatever else you have going on on your wrist, do not disturb the beauty of the movement. At the same time, when you remove the watch and look through the back, in this direction the metallized glass becomes magically transparent and you can see the movement from this side as well.
References
The men’s Golden Bridge Ceramic (the official name is Corum Bridges Golden Bridge) is reference B113/02213 – 113.261.15/0001 0000R.
The women’s Miss Golden Bridge Ceramic (officially Corum Bridges Golden Bridge Miss) is reference B113/02624 – 113.110.15/0001 0000J.
A precedent
There is a watch movement that could possibly be considered as the inspiration for Vincent Calabrese’s intuition. In 1929, Jaeger-LeCoultre created the Calibre 101, specially to fit the diminutive jewellery watches that were all the rage at that time. This tiny rectangular movement has 98 parts, and it measures 14 x 4.8 x 3.4 mm, weighs a gram, and it is still the smallest mechamical movement ever made. It has the same rectangular format as the Golden Bridge, but the gears aren’t placed on the same vertical axis.
The Calibre 101 by Jaeger-LeCoultre, 98 parts, just over a gram. Image courtesy of watchallure.com
