Ecstasy on your Wrist: Corum's 1976 Rolls-Royce timepiece

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Filed under: Gadgets (http://www.autoblog.com/category/gadgets/), Rolls-Royce (http://www.autoblog.com/category/rolls-royce/)

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/01/corum-rolls-royce-watch.jpg (http://www.luxist.com/2009/01/04/corum-rolls-royce-grill-vintage-watch/)Here at Autoblog, we've reported on a variety of automotive-themed wristwatches (http://www.autoblog.com/2006/12/28/top-10-car-watches/). But for all their branding and marketing efforts, few of the timepieces commissioned from Switzerland's finest bear much resemblance or connection to the cars they're meant to compliment. However, in 1976, Swiss watchmaking atelier Corum, known today primarily for their sailing-themed watches, struck an agreement with Rolls-Royce to produce the timepiece you see here.

The watch incorporates into its design the iconic Romanesque grille that adorns the front of Rolls-Royce automobiles, complete with a tiny Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament. The watch face is visible through the slats on the grille, realized in 18-karat gold. The timepiece from over thirty years ago is, of course, no longer in production, but remains a highly-valued collector's item. The closest we've seen recently is the unique wristwatch crafted by Girard-Perregaux to accompany the one-off Pininfarina Hyperion (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/27/pininfarina-hyperion-dash-mounted-watch-from-girard-perregaux/), but the link there between watch and car is no closer than any other's, and nowhere near as direct as Corum's vintage creation. Who knows, maybe the two will revive the partnership and bring the Phantom's grille to a wrist near you in the near future.

[Source: Luxist (http://www.luxist.com/2009/01/04/corum-rolls-royce-grill-vintage-watch/)]Ecstasy on your Wrist: Corum's 1976 Rolls-Royce timepiece (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/05/ecstasy-on-your-wrist-corums-1976-rolls-royce-timepiece/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).



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[ff]

ugly. :ack:

[operknockity]

ugly. :ack:

:+1

[ZBB]

ugly. :ack:

Yes... but its actually less ugly than much jewelry design back then. When I worked in jewelry stores in high school and college*, we would take in estate pieces (ie jewelry from dead people). There were many pieces that were really horrible. My boss would have the jeweler pull the stones and then we'd sell the scrap metals to a precious metals dealer (usually just a swap -- exchange the scrap for raw gold or platinum pellets, and then he'd melt the scrap back down to make more pellets).

* I was essentially the store runner -- making deliveries, going out and picking up parts from various jewelry supply wholesalers -- diamond dealers, other precious stone dealers, the precious metals dealer above. All of them had various security methods (bulletproof window pass-throughs at a couple places, intercoms and buzz-in doors just about everywhere). Most of them had unassuming names on the door, usually the company initials -- like Goldstein Diamonds, just having "GD, Inc.", which makes sense considering that they have millions of dollars of diamond inventory sitting in their office. Many of these places also had waiting rooms where you could wait for them to prep the order -- but every once in a while the diamond place would invite me in to the back office (but only after they knew who I was, and then only when I was picking up a VERY expensive diamond).

Thinking back on it, it was a bit concerning that I'd pick up this stuff from offices with such high security, then take them out to my old '65 LandCruiser for the trip back to the store (it wasn't uncommon for me to have jewelry parts in my pocket that was worth 10-20x the value of that old TLC...)