Severin Wunderman | Swiss watchmaker, 69

Severin Wunderman, 69, the owner of Corum, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, who was also an art collector and philanthropist, died of a stroke Wednesday at his home in Nice, France.

Mr. Wunderman, who built Gucci Timepieces into a multimillion-dollar business, owned homes in Southern California, Las Vegas and Europe.

His first step into the manufacturing business came when he was in his 20s and made and sold gold chain jewelry. From there he went to work in the watch business.

He sold his Gucci watch business in the late 1990s and bought the Switzerland-based Corum company in 2000.

His first major success with Corum was a "bubble" watch with a glass dome over the watch face that Mr. Wunderman compared to a submarine hatch.

After suffering a life-threatening case of lung cancer in the 1990s, he established the Severin Wunderman Family Foundation to support medical research on incurable diseases.

In 2005, Mr. Wunderman was presented with the French Legion of Honor for his cultural and philanthropic contributions.

- Los Angeles Times