I’ve had various opportunities to visit German manufactures but never Swiss. So after this year’s Baselworld, I've had the honor to rectify this and finally visit a Swiss brand. I took a short trip from Basel via train to Biel/Bienne to visit Armin Strom.
Armin Strom (AS) is a small, young, somewhat independent brand, that is known for producing watches with a unique design language and in particular that are heavily skeletonize. I discovered the brand when I was first branching out to explore independents after acquiring watches from the main brands, e.g., Rolex and Omega.
I believe that this path is common for collectors who quickly realize that other smaller brands can make an amazing product. However, the thing that attracted me the most to Armin Strom was after visiting them at Baselworld 2017 and realizing that at less than 30 years old this was a small brand that was doing all the right things. Things that larger more established watch brands have difficulty realizing.
First, they had just released their new watch, the mirrored force resonance, which as far as I know is the second production resonance watch on the market today. After the glorious Chronomètre à Résonance from F.P. Journe. And what is impressive about Armin Strom is that they not only released an uncommon mechanism, they have also innovated on it as you will see later.
Armin Strom Configurator showing steps to configure the bridges for a Skeleton Pure watch
The second thing that attracted me to the brand was their online web site, which started offering a bespoke configurator. A simple online application where potential buyers can customize their watch and make it truly their own. The customization options are limited, but pretty much any of the Armin Strom watches can be customized with unique colors and finishing, so that the watch you end up receiving (in a few months for most cases) will be unique to you.
When the opportunity came for me to visit the manufacture in Biel/Bienne I was happy to make the trek and meet up with Thierry Hess who welcomed me at the train station. We took a short ride through the city, overlooking Omega’s headquarters, and arrived at the two-story building that constitute the entire AS manufacture. It’s a modern office space with enough windows giving on an atrium to fit the modern landscape, yet give it the calm surrounding that such a workplace demands.
My first stop was to finally get a chance to handle the finish products: the mirrored force resonance. Since the watch was finally unveiled last year, AS had enough exemplars that I could handle, try on, and photograph many variations. My first impression after admiring the skeletonize dial with the exposed resonance mechanism was to immediately start asking questions about how it was created and how it worked.
First, as I mentioned, one of the legacy of the AS brand is in producing watches with uncommon finishing. This is inherited from the brand’s founder who had made a name for himself hand-skeletonizing watches in the neighborhood. When Serge Michel and Claude Greisler took over the brand in 2006 with the purpose of eventually creating a full manufacture, they made sure to keep to their roots. The brand’s motto today is actually “we show what we make”.
Hand finishing for main plate with Geneva stripes and hand decorations on bridges
The second trait that the mirrored force resonance has that is common to all AS watches is the off centered dial, which is typically smaller than the entire dial thus giving more visibility to the mechanism. For the mirrored force resonance this works brilliantly as the left side of the dial you can see in full view the two independent, symmetrically mirrored regulators, that constitute the resonance mechanism. And unlike the Journe watch, the Armin Strom is connected mechanically. This is also in full view.
And to better see the mechanism in action there are two subdials showing the running seconds from each balance. These in time get in full resonance, by gradually balancing their differences until they beat as one. The owner of the watch has the opportunity to manually reinitialize and synchronize the two seconds indicator with the pusher at 2 o’clock.
After spending time with the newest jewels from AS it was time to visit the manufacture and see where the different parts are conceived, manufactured, polished, and decorated. After seeing the design office, where AS (like most modern manufactures) makes heavy use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) to plan all of their watches and movements. Except for a few parts, all are designed and manufactured under this roof Thierry explained.
Moving to the next door offices I could see first hand how the CAD designs are then sent to CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machines to create the various parts that make up the complex watches and movements that AS make. Besides the mirrored force resonance, the manufacture also makes two simpler 5 days and 8 days manual wound calibers, along with a dual time that includes a 3 days automatic movement.
And if that was not enough, AS also makes a heavily skeletonize version of the 8 days watch for which they have won various awards as well as a tourbillon watch. And as I mentioned, all watches can be customized online before you place your order. So if you want a light blue, brown, or even purple bridges to go with your PVD base 8 days edge double barrel watch, you can order just that.
Seeing the various steps needed to create the base plate of the movements along with the decorations for each parts, it’s interesting that AS offers this bespoke service. Part of it is because of their small production output at less than a few thousands compared to many times this figure for bigger brands. Reinforcing the fact that getting a watch from a small independent brand you are getting something made for you, rather than a stamped out product.
The other thing that impressed me was the level of quality control that Armin Strom put their watches to. Since they service all of their products in house, the philosophy is to produce a product with the highest level of quality from the start. And since all AS watches are skeletonize they take pride in decorating all movement parts to extreme levels so that the resulting product in something Mr. Strom would be proud of. So whether it’s hand decorating bevels, blued screws, black polished parts, and Geneva stripes or using various electrolytic baths for the various metals, it’s all done in house.
The variations of the techniques are made more difficult since AS produces watches with three kinds of metal finishing. They use the simple nomenclature of fire, water, earth, and air to name them. Gold watches are fire, water watches are steel and earth watches are PVD steel, whereas air watches are titanium. A cool simple way to divide their products that makes sense and make it easy on end-customers.
While I have never own nor worn an AS watches for longer than my time spent in Biel/Bienne, I have left the manufacture with an renewed appreciation for the brand and for independent watch making in general. None of these small brands make watches that one would consider entry level watches. They are not. You are paying for the attention, manual labor, and unique innovation.
For most collectors you are better off starting with the big brands (Rolex, Omega, TAG Heuer, and others) as they can deliver for relatively low prices a product that is hard to reproduce. However, when you are tired of the same old watch that you will see all over and you want to start experiencing the value of smaller brands that can create a watch with themes and colors of your choosing while decorating each parts by hand to the highest levels, then I invite you to visit Armin Strom’s Web site and perhaps an authorized dealer to see why they are some of the best kept secrets of the Swiss watchmaking industry. arminstrom.com
Over the years writing about watches, you are bound to develop great friendships and admiration for the many in the industry who have dedicated their lives to the watchmaking art. Two of the folks I hold in highest esteem and am generally happy to call friends are the Horological Brothers from the watch brand Grönefeld.
Since I was traveling to the Netherlands in September, I used the opportunity to take the train and criss-cross the country to spend a few hours with Tim and Bart. I even got a chance to meet their dad as well as Tim’s son. It’s truly a family affair in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands. This report will give a thorough recount of this short but memorable visit early fall of 2019.