CORUM COIN WATCH MEDUSA (UNIQUE PIECE)

corum "hobo coin" : turning art on its head(s) !

The Corum Watches Switzerland Corum Heritage Artisan Collection Corum Coin Watch

Corum Watch, the Swiss watch brand based around a La Chaux-de-Fonds manufacture originally founded by Rene Bannwart in 1955, is synonymous with the coin case watch, a watch with an ultra-thin movement hidden within a coin, producing its very coin watch back in 1964, choosing to slice a coin in two to house the movement, with the hour hand circulating above the face of the coin itself. The Corum Hobo Watch Collection from Corum Watches Switzerland, which will surely go down in history as one of the Swiss brand’s more inspired and collectible, unique works of art,  is the product of combining Corum brand’s own tradition of the Corum coin watch with another authentic early century craft tradition from the US, that of the “Hobo Coin”, the unique works of art created during the Great Depression by the traveling itinerants crossing the U.S. by freight train, soldiers on the way to the front for the First World War and artists intent on upcycling small change from the U.S. Mint such as the early century five Cent or Nickel, into unique pieces, as a limited edition of one, many featuring a skull, death, skeleton and symbols of mortality against the original text of the nickel coin itself, a piece of popular art  in a popular art form that could be sold or traded for more than its face value.

With the Nickel as a poor man’s coin, the popular art form developed and spread throughout the Great Depression, and not only in New York but all across the US, although today, authentic early century original hobo coins dating from the Great Depression-era are far from commonplace, making hobo coins extremely rare and collectable.

The status of the popular art form of the great depression and early century Hobo coin in US culture and history and its undeniable need for protection led to the creation of the Original Hobo Nickel Society in 1992, thankfully with the result that the art form developed in that period will not be forgotten. Perhaps no surprise then, that Corum Watch Switzerland has chosen, with its Corum Hobo Collection of coin watches, to tap into the authentic early century tradition of the hobo coin, combining it with the unsurpassed talent of Aleksey Saburov, to engrave a limited edition number of Corum Hobo Coin Watches, in the process reviving the popular art form of the original 20th Century Hobo Coins in the public consciousness and creating their very own unique works of art, in unique engraved coin Hobo Coin Watches. Corum Watch Switzerland brand’s intuition and creativity in choosing to tap into the Great Depression tradition and popular art form of the Hobo Coin and combine this with their own decades-long experience in the production of the engraved coin Corum Coin Watch is of course, inspired, and one which will catch the watch buying public’s imagination.

In recent years, following the work of Davide Traxler as the previous CEO, Corum Watch Switzerland brand’s CEO Jerome Biard has made a habit of watchmaking collaborations, including those with the Dreamworks composer, arranger and pianist Joachim Horsley on its Corum Watch Switzerland Golden Bridge model, Juliette Jourdain for the Corum Watch Bubble 42 Juliette Jourdain Limited Edition, and the work with Bamford Watch London, Parisian concept store Colette and designer Thomas Erber for the production of  the Admirals watch limited edition (10 pieces) Admiral’s Cup and Legend 42 Colette watches.

The Corum Watch Switzerland Corum Heritage Artisan Coin Watch was to be no exception, as you will see from what follows. For the Corum Watch Switzerland Corum Heritage Artisan Coin Watch project, Corum Watches Switzerland were fortunate to recruit renowned Russian engraver and New York resident Aleksey Saburov, as this job fell right into his department.

Aleksey Saburov, as an existing creator of 21st Century Hobo Coins agreed to fashion an extremely limited number of unique works of art in the popular art form for the Corum Watch Switzerland Corum Heritage Artisan Collection Corum Coin Watch, the case diameter of 43mm allowing the use of “925” silver coins for both the watch dial and watch back, providing Aleksey Saburov with an enormous blank canvas to exercise his engraved magic over the watch automatic caliber CO082 / ETA2892 movement hidden within.

Aleksey Saburov was able to provide a series of completely unique pieces, in a hand-engraved limited run, featuring examples of the imagery from the popular art form the authentic early century original pieces such as a skull or skulls and snakes motifs, with the US Silver Dollar coin as its base rather than the U.S. Nickel, with one example actually being engraved live during the Baselworld exhibition itself. The silver – blue-grey tones of the US Silver Dollar coin of the Aleksey Saburov hand-engraved, death skull dial Corum Watch Switzerland Corum Heritage Artisan Collection Corum Coin Watch is neatly highlighted by a blue sapphire crown and blue denim strap, coin-edged watch bezel, with simple baton hours and minute hands.

The Corum Watch Switzerland brand decision to combine their own long-standing tradition of silver coin watches with the tradition of the poor man’s five-cent coin of the original Great Depression-era nickel and other coins into the beautifully engraved, unique works of art which mirror those of the authentic early century Hobo Coin, in a limited edition run of pieces of the expertly hand engraved Corum Watch Switzerland Corum Heritage Artisan Collection Corum Coin Watch is an inspired move. If and when one is fortunate enough to either view or own one these pieces and view up close the hand-engraved skull, snake and death motifs of the watch case, case back and watch dial of these watches, I am sure one will be inclined to agree.