Review of my Corum Admiral's Cup Legend 42mm 984.101.20

[benlee]

I picked up this watch at my local AD yesterday. It's kind of a impulse buy but I need ( no, wanted ) an understated leather dress watch that is light and comfortable enough as my daily wearer. Besides, at around USD4K, it's relatively "affordable" and I am always in for cheap thrills and it adds variety to my collection.


The Brand

Corum has been around since 1955. It's two signature product lines are the Admiral's Cup range of sports watch and the skeleton Golden Bridge. The Admiral's Cup products all bears the signature Corum's dodecagonal case. I was always under the impression that Corum is a high end brand as it also make high end tourbillions and minute-repeaters so I was kind of surprise that they offer watches in this price range.


The packaging.

The watch comes in a large and well made wooden box that looks expensive. Inside the box, contains the watch itself, a Corum product tag with the watch's serial number, a well written instruction manual in multiple languages, a service centre booklet, the warranty card, a chronometer certificate card and a Certificate of Authenticity.












The Watch

The watch is a leather strap stainless steel automatic chronograph, with a 42mm sapphire crystal display and a grey white dial housed in Corum's signature dodecagonal case. The watch has an in-house CO984 movement which I believed is a modified top-grade ETA 2894 movement. The hands and indexes are rhodium coated and the hands have luminova coating for lume effects in low lighting situation. The dial changes color and hues depending on the exterior lighting it is subjected to.










The alligator strap has a deployment buckle and is user adjustable. The watch also has a sapphire crystal display back which shows off the movement. The crown is flanked by the chronometric buttons.











Performance

The watch's dial which is grey with "Guilloche" finishing and three sub dials is easy to read under most circumstances. The watch's bezel is polished while the sides are brushed. The overall quality of workmanship is good and looks more sophisticated and expensive than it's price tag would suggest. The alligator strap has a deployment buckle with a butterfly clasp and I love the fact that it can be opened and removed in one single movement. The watch is very comfortable to wear, as it is light and sits flatly on the wrist compared to my other watches.

Here are some wrist shots :








The watch has a chronograph and date complication. The buttons that activate the chronograph which are as usual besides the crown is hard to press and requires a strong press to activate, thus making impromptu timing situations not ideal. The crown is easy to operate and make adjusting the watch a breeze. The watch has a water resistance of 30m. During my short period of use, I detect no accuracy issue. The watch is Swiss COSC chronometer certified.



Conclusion


The watch delivers good value for money, looks great and is very well made for the price. Sure the brand is relatively unknown, and might not be something to crow about ( and perhaps the price tag reflects that ) but for anyone wanting an elegant sophisticated looking watch that is comfortable to wear daily, this is a great choice. I will presume this will be it's purpose for me.