01.0025
You may remember a few weeks ago I bought a selection of 'International Watch' magazines, that originated from the mid 1990s. Reading one today I came across an article about Corum, and for some reason it got me thinking... for all the time I spend on eBay looking for TAG Heuer watches and memorabilia, I can barely ever remember searching for other brands of watches, except maybe Breitling, but not in the last couple of years (and certainly not now they've gone down the 'we're just so damn retro it hurts' route).
So who knows, maybe there's a world of pre-owned watches out there from brands that are not so well known and which might not hold their value that well? Maybe my blinkered vision means I'm missing out on a veritable bounty of watches, perhaps some Girard Perregaux divers for next to nothing... or perhaps a Ulysse Nardin for the price of an Aquaracer?
Well probably not, but I did search for Corum... and to be completely truthful, most of what came up was pretty awful. I know they are famous for those dreadful bubble watches, but a lot of their other stuff isn't much better. But then my eye settled on this (above) and I was rather shocked by it. Finally a Corum that I actually liked!
Now the diamond bezel might give the game away, because in fact this is technically a 'ladies' watch. But... crucially, it is 40mm in diameter, so to my mind that is at the very least something that could be considered 'Unisex'! I mean come on, with that protruding crown and those brutalist crown guards, this thing is going to measure 45-46mm surely!
They also make it in black, with a chronograph, which is a bit less feminine admittedly... and the flags look rather cool in monochrome, but still I think I prefer the white version. But okay, maybe it is a bit girly... (can't even buy it for my wife as it's way too big for her tiny wrists, she can only just cope with 36mm!), and of course there are 'Admiral's Cup' models for men. Here's one below, the only problem is it's 50mm in diameter!
Why on Earth does it need to be so big - that's ludicrous. I mean, I don't like it much anyway, although the strap looks quite cool. Kinda reminds me of the Oris rubber straps, the ones that come on the Aquis... but no way can this thing be 5mm bigger than my Heuer 01, that just isn't going to work.
They do however, make a rather cool watch called the 'Deep Hull 1000', which as you can probably guess from the name is manly to the max. It looks (at least to me at any rate) like an Aquagraph that has been redesigned by a Terminator T-800, and then given twice the water resistance - hence the 1000 in the name. This is a beast of a watch and yet again the sizing is the wrong side of ridiculous.
If I remember correctly the Aquagraph is 42mm in diameter, but this thing is 48mm, and will you look at the size of that crown, that thing would give Richard Mille nightmares! Part of me quite likes it though, but I know on wrist it would almost certainly look completely over the top.
List price on one of these is nigh on £8000, but as I suspected you can pick one up from Chrono 24 fairly easily for around about £3k. I think at £8000 it looks expensive, but at £3000 it's looking like a very credible and very cool alternative to a 500M Aquaracer, or indeed the Aquagraph!
Corum certainly are a very hit and miss brand, and I really can't see me succumbing to their offerings any time soon, but it just shows that once in a while perhaps it's worth taking the blinkers off to see what else is out there - even if it's only to assure yourself that you were happy as you were in the first place!
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