Corum Golden Bridge Titanium, A Golden Bridge Towards Lightness

It's always a pleasure to wear an uncommon model with a powerful and exclusive aura.

A unique movement

And the titanium version of the Golden Bridge fits the bill. The star of this version is undoubtedly the movement. In 1980, in what was a great watchmaking revolution, it was the first ever baguette caliber and today it is still difficult to find on the market. Equipped with an 18K golden bridge, the Corum CO313 is stunningly pure and well balanced. Since 2011, the linear self-winding baguette movement has been equipped with a rare platinum linear oscillating mass and a sliding brace mechanism. It oscillates at 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations per hour) and provides a 40-hour power reserve. 

You can never tire of watching the 194 components, the variable-inertia balance and the miniaturized barrel. The use of a magnifying glass is vital for the movement. The bridge is decorated by a handcrafted linear guilloche, which adds further elegance to the whole and highlights its vertical position. It can be admired with an even better angle via the sapphire glass of the caseback as well as through the openings covered in anti-reflective sapphire glass on the middle. This all grants unfettered visual access to the grace and refinement of the movement from all sides. This brings a true, rarely found joy.

Extreme and clever skeletonization

The value of such a watchmaking masterpiece could only be emphasized by skeletonizing it. However, Corum has cleverly treated the caseback with golden metalized stripes. This helps connected aficionados to avoid any disgraceful exhibitionism of the hairs on the wrist and allows them to take a perfect 'wristshot' to post on social networks. It also offers easy readability, which is a major recurrent problem in skeletonized watches.

The 5N golden indexes affixed on the sapphire dial and the indexes of the minute-track transferred on the dial glint depending on the angle of the light. This gives some depth to the watch, thus enhancing readability. It's a beautiful example of useful innovation and originality.

The comfort of the barrel shape

Despite the rather large dimensions (37.20 x 51.80 x 13.70-mm) of its barrel-shaped black DLC-coated case (water resistant to 30 meters), the Corum Golden Bridge Titanium settles perfectly and most comfortably on the wrist. That is also helped by the lightness of the grade 5 titanium as well as the soft curves of the case. The small 19-mm space between the lugs adds to the refinement of the one-of-a-kind timepiece. The titanium crown engraved with the Corum key brings a last touch of elegance.

The only flaw that I found was that the black facetted and openworked hour and minute baton hands do not necessarily lighten the already-aerial assembly. Moreover, the movements of the 4-g oscillating mass can be felt from time to time. But perhaps that's just me.

With its black alligator strap and titanium pin buckle engraved with the Corum logo, the Golden Bridge Titanium Automatic is quite a refined addition to the brand's large family of iconic watches.