To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Admiral’s Cup, Corum is launching the Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon 45. The movement, caliber CO 010, took 12 of Corum’s best watchmakers 2 years to develop. Corum wanted to avoid the traditional slide to wind the repeater, fearing that on a sporty watch, it might catch on something and damage the mechanism. The solution was to wind the repeater via the bezel.
The repeater components were conceived and developed to guarantee the precision and beauty of the tone by considering its power (expressed in decibels), its precision (note correctness), its richness (expressed in number of partials), and its reverberation (duration of each note). The minutes-rack, placed at the heart of the ringing mechanism, is inverted compared to traditional minute repeaters in order to bring strength and precision to each note. It has also been enlarged to permit a wider lift angle to each tooth, extending the time between notes. The racks hitting the gongs are made out of ultra-resistant and hardened steel. Fixed to these racks, countersprings have been specially conceived to find the best balance of the hitting strength and speed. During the ringing, the rhythm is regulated through the rotation of an inertial flywheel, visible on the movement’s back. The gongs, manufactured from an alloy featuring a composition and thermal treatment that are a closely guarded secret, have been adjusted to strike the hours with an A note and minutes with a C sharp note. These two notes have not been chosen randomly, their specific sequence forms a major third (two tones) with a more cheerful harmony than a minor third (one and a half tones). The precision of the whole mechanism is guaranteed through a Tourbillon with Silicium escapement and pallets offering reliability and durability.
The hand-wound movement is 32mm in diameter and only 5.35mm thick with a 72 hour power reserve. Each surface is hand-finished: circular-grained components, black polished steels – in particular the strike-hammers and Tourbillon Bridge – circular-grained decoration of the plate and Côtes de Genève finish of the bottom bridges. The 45 mm diameter case 18kt red gold.
It takes a master watchmaker about 140 hours to assemble each movement, which consists of 319 components. An additional 10 hours is devoted to perfecting the repeater’s sound. Only 10 pieces will be produced in 2010. The suggested retail price is $290,000.
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