Corum Honoured at Watch Of The Year 2009 Event

On October 28th at the Intercontinental Hotel of Geneva, the 2009 edition of the Watch of the Year event took place to award the most notable watches conceived in the past year as chosen by a panel of experts. Corum took a very respectable second place for its Ti-Bridge that was introduced at this year's Baselworld fair.

The winners are chosen from a group of forty watches that in turn are selected from the hundreds of watches created during the period of September 2008 and December 2009. Corum's Ti-Bridge was chosen to be the second-best watch created this year. Top honours are reserved for Vacheron Constantin's "Historiques American 1921"

Upon accepting the prize, Corum CEO Antonio Calce announced that he is "happy to receive this prize, which reflects the pride of [his] teams, whose talent contributes to make the value of Corum today. The Ti-Bridge embodies perfectly the philosophy of Corum: creativity, design and high watchmaking content. This timepiece opens a new chapter in the already rich history of the company."

Nadine Grenier, a student at l'Esad, produced an elegant work on the subject of the passage of time. 500 clocks, ticking in unison, form together a hidden message every 12 hours. The work was commissioned for the International Design Biennale at Saint-Etienne.

Among the watches being auctioned at a sale in October is a watch once owned by Albert Einstein.

For the Einstein fan, we have a Longines that was owned by the scientist himself. It is a unique and historically important wristwatch, made in 1930. The watch was presented to Professor Albert Einstein on February 16, 1931 in Los Angeles. It is a fine, tonneau-shaped, 14K yellow gold wristwatch accompanied by various photos showing Prof. Einstein wearing the watch. Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000.

You'd think that the price for timepiece once owned by the man who changed our conceptions about time and space would be substantial, but it's one of the lower priced featured watches. And the price is not even close to the world record:

In 2002, Antiquorum established the all-time world record price for a wristwatch at auction when it sold a platinum Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 1415 from 1939 for an astounding CHF 6,603,500 (US$ 4,026,524). This record-breaking price more than doubled the previous world record price for a wristwatch at auction. Another record price for a modern watch was achieved in 2004, the unique white gold Calibre 89, also by Patek Philippe, was sold for SFr. 6,603,500 (US$ 5,002,652).

CORUM is proud to announce that Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is the 2008 winner of THE GLOBAL BRAND ICON OF THE YEAR AWARD supported by the Swiss Watchmaking Brand. He is the second person to win this honor as the inaugural award was won in 2007 by Al Gore, the former U.S. Vice President who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize later that year. Jimmy Wales received a CORUM watch - the Romvlvs Dual Time in red gold - as a distinguished award at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore on August 14.

Over the last 5 years, the Global Brand Forum has become the world platform for inspiration and thought leadership in the area of brands and business. Called the 'Davos of Branding', this exclusive event highlights the achievements of people in the global arena who have made an outstanding contribution to the world and redefined business. For 2 years, CORUM has been supporting the Global Brand Forum in offering a privileged stage to the world's leading brand and business icons.

During two days at the Ritz Carlton Millenia in Singapore, from August 14 to 15, 8 outstanding speakers were gathered to bring their voice and vision to the theme of: 'The maverick approach to brand building'. A time to share and discuss experiences, learning and insights on what it takes to build disruptive brands. The world's leading marketing experts were asked to show how their approach helps to build brands with the courage to step outside of their comfort zone and to go against the grain.

CORUM shares the values upheld by the Global Brand Forum and is concerned by the chosen theme of Maverick Approaches to Brand Building because the Swiss watchmaking brand aims on a daily basis to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by adopting a more disruptive approach.

This year, by giving this award to Jimmy Wales, CORUM is proud to highlight the work of a man who has himself become a brand that stands for good, giving free access to human knowledge on a worldwide level. He duly represents what CORUM continually supports: To unlock and conquer new perimeters of innovation and breakthrough.

CORUM will support the next Global Brand Forum which will be held in Malaysia in November.

During a gathering of the Wall Street Watch Club, which is a series of cocktail parties hosted by Dealmaker magazine, one of the timepieces on view was Blancpain's new Carrousel Volant Une Minute. Self-winding and water resistant up to 100 meters, it retails for $180,300. While the average Casio - or mobile telephone, for that matter - can tell time as accurately as its high-end counterpart, wristwatches such as the Blancpain model remain the only discernible fashion statement for men.

Fashion statements, of course, are not to be confused with status symbols, including fast cars, wine cellars, and trophy wives. For the Ivy League MBA candidates who come to the club events to ogle what they hope to own someday, the expensive hardware is the draw: smart chronometers made of hundreds of parts fastidiously assembled by Swiss craftsmen.

At Club Macanudo, a cigar lounge on the Upper East Side, a popular game is to find the one man in the lounge not wearing one. Sure, bonuses on Wall Street won't be as hefty as in years past, but they continue to fuel the market for such watches. This year, overly large and excessively jeweled watches are out. What's in are slimmer, more conservatively styled watches reminiscent of decades past.

The Blancpain is one of many skeletal designs - so named because it display parts of a watch's inner mechanics - that have become increasingly popular. So, too, have tool or sport watches, often cast in stainless steel and designed for particular functions such as diving and sailing. The rugged-looking Panerai has set the pace in the sport watch category for the last few years. Also leading the way is the series of bold tool watches designed by Bell & Ross, founded in 1992 by aviation engineers; the pieces resemble instruments in an airplane's cockpit.

Breitling, a luxury sport watch brand with a loyal pilot following, began a marketing relationship with Bentley Motorcars during the luxury marque's quest to reclaim a title at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a sports car endurance race held annually in France (the company did indeed recover its designation in 2003). This year's Bentley Mulliner Tourbillon, a bespoke Breitling watch for which the customer can choose certain finishes, is a tribute to the Mulliner department, Bentley's custom car-building division.

Still another style gaining in recognition is the multifunctional model best represented this season by the Breguet Classique Grande Complication, which retails for $284,500. It presents the age and phase of the moon, the day, the month, and leap year within the 12-hour, 18-karat gold dial.

In the 1990s, mechanical, that is, non-battery, watches began their big comeback. The major watchmakers wasted no time in making the majority of them self-winding models, according to Steve Kivel, whose family has operated Central Watch in Grand Central Terminal since 1952.

The Piaget, Lange & Sohne, and Vacheron Constantin brands (Richemont Group) and lines such as Jaquet Droz and Glashutte Original (Swatch Group) have also offered their takes on the mechanical, skeletal, and tool watch themes.

Another trend among watch enthusiasts is looking to the secondary market for vintage models. A stainless steel Rolex Daytona that originally sold at retail for $500 in the 1970s, sold at auction for $505,000 in April. 'These were the cheapest watches that Rolex made at the time,' a vice president in the watch department at Sotheby's, Aaron Rich, said.

But if there's an undisputed top-of-the-line name among collectors, it's Patek Philippe. 'It's the king of the market and always will be,' Mr. Rich said.