Corum Watch

10-001       THE ELEGANT WATCH                  

ORIGINAL Material:    18 K Gold, Diamonds, Metal deployment Band

REPLICA MATERIAL: Gold Plated, Swarovski Crystals, Deployment Band, - Seiko Watch

Women’s watches were always small and delicate and with miniature faces were very hard to read no matter what your age is.  At a more mature age, the faces are almost impossible to read.  In 1971 Grace had a watch created by Piaget that had a large face and she could read it comfortably without glasses.  This was an everyday watch and by 1974 Grace had realized she needed a more formal watch she could wear for everything from just lunch with friends to formal occasions where she did not want to have to rely on others to tell her what time it was and where she needed to be a that particular time.  In order to create her ‘everyday watch’, Grace had taken a man’s watch and added diamonds and minor style changes to make a the ultimate female watch. 

 Needing to do the same thing for a more formal watch, Grace went to Rolex and asked for changes, which they were more than happy to make for her.  Main change to a ‘man’s watch’ she liked was add diamonds on the face, but not a continuous circle of them, she broke up the diamond circle, so common to women’s watches.  The hands and numbers needed to be larger so she could see them at a quick glance, and then wanted a ‘deployment band’ added to make it easy to put on without having to see the clasp mechanism, which without her glasses she could not see well.

 With these changes the Elegant watch was created, but one more caveat was added to Rolex....they can not make and sell any other watch that looked like it.  Rolex agreed, but for 10 years only, and Grace agreed to that as well.  

 Grace’s watch was created in a solid 18 Karat Gold case, but with an alloy band, as a gold band would not be strong enough to stand up to her active day.  The deployment mechanism was made of high grade Stainless Steel.  At the time white metal watches were not popular with women.  Today this has changed and the watch is offered in both Gold and silver versions.

                                                      

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