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.

[orangedial]

Nice review. Love the pics, especially the last one!
By the way, I suspect the chronograph movement should be a modified 7750, no?

[benlee]

Originally Posted by orangedial

Nice review. Love the pics, especially the last one!
By the way, I suspect the chronograph movement should be a modified 7750, no?

Hmm... can't say for sure. It only listed the movement as CO984 in the specs sheet.

[benlee]

Here are some DSLR shots I took of this watch. Despite it's understated look and underwhelming price, it's actually a handsome watch!



The Dial















The Back Display









Strap, Crown and Buckle

[Psmith]

Very interesting review and great photos - thanks!

[Cru Jones]

Originally Posted by Psmith

Very interesting review and great photos - thanks!

x2!

[asadtiger]

Sir, in my humble opinion, USD 4k is really not as low as you repeatedly state it to be :D..I seriously think that is a mid-range price tag and indeed your watch is an excellent example of a high grade product at a mid range price, not a high grade product at a low range price :)..and I do not say this from a subjective criteria of personal price assessment, but from the stated and accepted mid-range price spectrum, where $4k falls.

that said, you have purchased a beautiful watch from a wonderful maker which makes a lot of my very personally favorite watches

[benlee]

Originally Posted by asadtiger

Sir, in my humble opinion, USD 4k is really not as low as you repeatedly state it to be :D..I seriously think that is a mid-range price tag and indeed your watch is an excellent example of a high grade product at a mid range price, not a high grade product at a low range price :)..and I do not say this from a subjective criteria of personal price assessment, but from the stated and accepted mid-range price spectrum, where $4k falls.

that said, you have purchased a beautiful watch from a wonderful maker which makes a lot of my very personally favorite watches

Thank you Asad for your insights and perspective. When I said USD4K is "cheap", it's a relative term as compared to my other watches that are all in the USD7K to USD15K price range. Certainly, the Corum is very good value for the price. That's what I am trying to express in the review.

[h999r]

Great review Benlee, nice shots and nice watch too. Congrats.

[lja1821]

Looks gorgeous..corum produces very fine timepieces at great prices..congrats

[Maxtor]

Nice review. I am not very familiar with Corum but that is a handsome looking watch.

[caryyee]

Thank you for the beautiful photos and great review. I've previously not been a fan of Corum, the majority of their watches look a bit garish to me, but I have to admit, your one is fantastic looking! Those macro shots have really shown up well the detail and finishing, very impressive for a $4k watch!

[ralpie]

Amazing photos, used to have an Admirals Cup 48mm Challenge. That was too big, this looks perfect!

[benlee]

Thanks guys for your feedback. So far I am more than happy with this watch.

Here's another recent shot in sunlight.

[George Ab]

Thanks for the review. That piece is stunning.

I see a lot of watches and my eye is fairly refined at looking at the details. I had a Corum Admiral Cup GMT slide through my hands. The refinement and and attention to detail was simply amazing particularly when considering the price point.

[malarky_hk]

Nice pics. Lots of nice little details in the watch and at 4K, I think there's good value as well. Enjoy it.

[leica]

excellent review & shots!

[turbineboy]

Great review. Very nice pictures.
You have a very beautiful watch on your wrist there.

I liked the fact that the Admirals cups used to have the flags in their colors which really stood out and gave the watch it’s distinctive look. It appears they have now made it monotone and almost invisible – perhaps they are trying to get attention away from the flags which I always thought was their mark so to speak.

I am not sure why more people are not aware of Corum. I think they have some very nice timepieces which really stand out compared to some of the other manufacturer's who charge twice or three times as much.

I have the Admirals cup chronograph 44mm and it has been one of my favorites from day one. The bracelet is really very comfortable to wear.

To add to your review, I recently had mine serviced at Corum factory service and they did an exceptional job with the watch with amazing attention to detail. They actually went above and beyond and corrected even the things I did not ask them to for the fixed price for a standard service. And the turn around time of 3 weeks was acceptable. The timepiece keeps very good time and is a joy to wear.
For the price and the quality that comes with it, these watches are hard to beat.

[eric23]

Great review and photos!

[votoms]

I haven't had an opportunity to see one in person yet, and I can't really tell from the pictures but do the hour markers and hands sparkle and have that blingy affect of an Omega AQ? Just wondering.

[TonyD]

I love the look of that watch. I have always liked the unusual case shape but was put off by the colored flags around the dial. I like the monotone color scheme there since it does show the flags but its also very subtle.

[steveclocks]

Severin Wunderman (a Belgian) bought Corum in 2000.
So a bit of Belgian taste to this mavellous watchbrand.
Ben, congratz on your beautiful Corum watch. Well done man
by the way beautiful photographs too, thanks for sharing it here with us.

[cajunron]

Love your new Corum, Ben. Great job.