Corum was founded in 1955 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by René Bannwart and his uncle Gaston Ries, as an upscale house specialising in unusual dial and case concepts. The company name derives from the Latin quorum, a nod to Bannwart's legal background. Unlike the manufacture houses in the Jura, Corum positioned itself as a creative atelier working primarily with ETA and Valjoux base movements but producing distinctive complete watches.
The Admiral's Cup launched in 1960 as a regatta chronograph for offshore sailing. The dial features the twelve coloured international signal flags of the nautical alphabet, A through M, arranged around the bezel, and was originally sold in small quantities at Monaco and Cowes regatta venues. The Admiral's Cup has remained in continuous production for 65 years, making it one of the oldest continuously produced chronograph references in watchmaking, and has since expanded to include tourbillon, minute-repeater, and GMT variants.
The Golden Bridge, launched in 1980, was Corum's most influential technical piece. The watch contains a custom rectangular baguette-shaped mechanical movement (Cal. 5-18, later Cal. CO 113) that runs nearly the full length of a slim rectangular case, with the movement visible from both sides through sapphire crystals. The Golden Bridge was designed by Vincent Calabrese, later the founder of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI). A modern Golden Bridge variant, the Golden Bridge Automatic, adds a micro-rotor perpendicular to the movement, visible through the crystal.
Corum's ownership has changed several times. Bannwart's family sold the brand in 2000, and after passing through Severin Wunderman (1990s), it was acquired by the Chinese Citychamp Watch & Jewellery Group in 2013. Under Citychamp, Corum has focused on the Admiral's Cup and Golden Bridge families with occasional haute-horlogerie extensions including skeletonised tourbillons and flying tourbillons. Retail runs from approximately CHF 4,500 (Admiral's Cup Legend 42) to CHF 35,000+ (Golden Bridge Automatic) and over CHF 100,000 for skeleton tourbillons.
