CORUM – Bridging History

Corum’s recent history is beautifully reflected in its La Chaux-de-Fonds factory.

WORLDTEMPUS - August 13 2010

Elizabeth Doerr

As Corum changed hands throughout the course of the last century, its character changed ever so slightly. The company was founded in 1955 by Gaston Ries and his nephew René Bannwart, who passed away in January. In 2000, this duo who sold it to its previous owner, the unique Severin Wunderman (who passed away last year). Wunderman added some of his own particular tastes and designs to the mix, which made for an exceptionally interesting mélange of models and styles ranging from the traditional pillars to the eccentric and unique one-offs.

A watchmaker assembles a Ti-Bridge at a state-of-the-art pressurized bench © Corum/Eveline Perroud

The one thing Corum did not have going for it over the course of these years was its own production facilities—a change that would be brought about by Antonio Calce. Hired in 2005 as vice-president of operations, he advanced to general manager in 2007. Calce has since reduced the Corum collection down to four main pillar lines and extended the company’s production facilities to bring more of the movement production in house. This year, Corum celebrates two big anniversaries: 50 years of the Admiral’s Cup and 30 years of the Golden Bridge.

The La Chaux-de-Fonds facility employs about 100 people, though the company can count about 160 employees worldwide thanks to subsidiaries. The approximate 16,000 watches the brand manufactures per year are distributed in 80 countries at about 500 points of sale. Corum opened its first boutique in 2009 in Hong Kong. Two are expected to follow in 2010: Shanghai and Geneva. A full 98 percent of Corum’s production is outfitted with mechanical movements.

Corum’s La Chaux-de-Fonds workshops © Corum/Eveline Perroud 

The “Bridge” line is one of Corum’s most expressive. The last years have seen the movements of these two models and their variations—the Golden Bridge and the Ti-Bridge—manufactured by La Joux-Perret and Vaucher. This is changing along with the expanded abilities of the company’s own facility, and now these movements come to the factory as kits. The creative and unusual movements are thus assembled by Corum’s own watchmakers. This step is a big and important one, which prompted Calce to hire a dedicated employee to organize and oversee quality control. Nourédine Diss now heads up this department of six technicians who perform perhaps the most important jobs at Corum: checking supplied parts to ensure the quality Corum delivers its customers. Diss, who has been in place since 2007, has even put together a system of charts and graphs to allow both Corum and its suppliers the chance to understand the big picture in terms of the quality of contracted parts.

Quality control in La Chaux-de-Fonds © Corum/Eveline Perroud

In what is known as the “atelier,” watchmakers assemble both the 200-300 Coin Watches Corum manufactures each year and the Bridge models. Round about 1,000 Golden Bridges are made each year with the help of state-of-the-art pressurized benches to avoid any sort of dust. The Ti-Bridge models, which have justifiably become the hit of the season with their interesting look and rather affordable pricing, are also assembled in-house using these same innovative benches.

“Corum has authentic and legitimate ambitions to also be recognized for its content and inner value in addition to its look!” Calce explains. And the company is on the best road to realizing this goal.

Assembling a Ti-Bridge © Corum/Eveline Perroud