Corum Admiral’s Cup Legend 42 in Gunmetal Blue

Corum recently unveiled these new limited edition Admiral’s Cup Legend 42′s, adorned with the same metallic blue color that graced the modern version as adopted in the early 1980′s.  Offered in red gold or steel, this tribute to the historical model will be limited to 300 pieces in two-tone steel and 100 pieces in steel/red gold.

This model, in steel, is particularly striking:

The case and the outer bracelet links achieve their distinctive metallic blue color via a PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) treatment.  This treatment also adorns the lugs, crown guard and dial.   As for the dial, note the applied hour indices, the vertical guilloché finish and the trademark, though subtly placed, nautical pennants around the inner bezel ring.  The highly polished bezel and the central links of the bracelet (either 18K red gold or polished steel) tie the watch together nicely.

Inside the watch is an automatic mechanical movement with an oscillating weight engraved with the Corum logo and visible through a transparent exhibition case-back:

History of the Corum Admiral’s Cup Collection

Corum introduced the Admiral’s Cup watch in 1960, though it was not until 23 years later that the collection adopted its current identity codes – 12 nautical pennants from the maritime international code of signals serving as hour-markers, along with a twelve-sided case.  It was the 1983 interpretation of the Admiral’s Cup that made the series a big commercial success.

Today, the Admiral’s Cup collection is composed of several distinct lines, or sub-collections: the Seafender, the Challenger, and finally, the Legend line which was introduced in 2011.   According to Corum, the Legend models feature a more modest size and softer angles while maintaining the same unique DNA of the the overall Admiral’s Cup collection.

Unfortunately Corum’s website is Flash-heavy and not at all user friendly, otherwise I’d recommend you visit it for more information.