Corum Casino Bubble
You don't have to be a high roller to wear the new Corum Casino Bubble, but you certainly are going to look like one, both on and off the casino floor. The bold wristwatch resembles a tiny roulette table.
Corum owner Severin Wunderman, who bought the Swiss watchmaker in December 1999, creates numerous fun and stylish designs each year for his large-format, bubble dome watch. Some verge on the bizarre -- such as a timepiece featuring faces of devils. However, his most famous timepiece to date is the sporty iral's Cup, which honors the regatta of the same name and comes with an automatic movement, automatic chronograph and automatic marées, which note the phases of the moon and tides.
The Casino Bubble, on the other hand, is for indoor sports with the face designed as a roulette table, complete with red and black colors and all the numbers. The watch movement is automatic (or self-winding), with a 42-hour power reserve when it isn't being worn. It comes in stainless steel (suggested U.S. retail price $2,696) as well as with a bezel inlaid with diamonds (about $6,395). All styles come with a leather strap, although a stainless steel mesh bracelet can be added for an additional $400. The Casino Bubble will be made in limited quantities, although not numbered. Wunderman says that the watch will be produced according to market demand.
Why did Wunderman decide to make a mini roulette-table watch? "Severin is a gambler of sorts," says Knych Keller, Corum USA's director of communications. "He is not really a gambler in the casino but more a gambler in life in general." A Corum watch from the late 1980s called the Casino Royale may have also inspired the iconoclastic watch designer.
Call Corum in California at 949-458-4200.
