Independent Watchmaking at its best – Armin Strom (Video)

“We don’t just take a movement and design a case, but we design the movement. It’s all about visibility.” – Serge Michel, CEO Armin Strom

Every industry has its stars and the watch branch certainly doesn’t come up short. Enter Armin Strom. This master Swiss watchmaker is associated with the kind of expertise that few watchmakers can only really ever hope of achieving. Beginning his illustrious career roughly 50 years ago, he originally made a name for himself by buying old watch movements from the likes of Alpina and skeletonizing them.

Over the last 50 years, his state-of-the-art watchmaking skills have manifested into a series of truly spectacular timepieces. Originally founded in 2006, fast forward just three years later and Armin Strom became a manufacture when it presented its first in-house movement, the ARM09. With a current total of eight in-house developed calibres, it’s continuously growing its blacksmithing prowess.

Meet the Manufacturer

In terms of the process involved in its craftsmanship, there is a lot at work going on here. Armin Strom watchmakers conduct extensive calculations and create hand drawn sketches before transferring their blueprints to a computer screen. Only once a watchmaker has decided upon which final parts will be incorporated into a piece is the blueprint truly fabrication-ready.

The raw components are given to a specific department for a traditional or cutting edge decoration e.g. Geneva stripes, mirror polishing, or chamfering edges. An electroplating department goes on to coat them with things such as rhodium or gold. That’s not all either. Every watch is subjected to an extensive, two to three week testing period and every piece is literally put through its paces by various stress-test machines to ensure only the highest level of quality.

Armin Strom is a manufacture born from the legendary mind and skill of a very famous watchmaker. It offers a line-up of extravagant and eccentric pieces that are both visually striking and full to the brim with luxury timekeeper functionality.

Watch Highlights in this video:

Armin Strom Tourbillon Gravity Fire (0:13)

Here we get our first look at the brands Tourbillon Gravity Fire, which belongs to its element theme based watches: earth, water, air, and fire. With a case dimension of 43 mm, the timepiece is burning things up with a very attractive 18 ct rose gold case and sports the brand’s trademark skeletonized dial. The outer black ring has a minute track with numerals in batches of five and still manages to be highly legible even with all the action on the watch’s face. Armin Strom has incorporated an in-house ATM 13 calibre into the timekeeper, it oscillates with a frequency of 18,000 A/h, and provides the watch with 110 hours of power reserve.

Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Water (4:11)

Another elemental themed timepiece, the Tourbillon Skeleton Water is completely under the sign of the aquatic element. A manual winding piece with blue PVD coating on its mainplate, it has a stainless steel case dimension of 43 millimetres. The Tourbillon Skeleton Water has a highly scratch resistant sapphire crystal protecting its face and a transparent case back to admire the attractive mechanical visuals at work. Notably, Armin Strom has decided to provide the piece with both a dark blue alligator strap with a double fold stainless steel clasp as well as a rubber strap in dark blue.

Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Air (4:43)

Here we see a side-by-side view of both the Tourbillon Skeleton Water (right) and the Tourbillon Skeleton Air (left). Once again, Armin Strom has opted to incorporate a 60-second tourbillon, located at the 9 position on the dial. The Tourbillon Skeleton Air is a manual winding timekeeper equipped with the brand’s ATC-11 calibre and flies luxuriously high in a nearly indestructible, 43 mm titanium case. The watch has 10 days of power reserve, skeletonized optics, and comes furnished with either a fitting gray or white alligator or rubber strap.

For more information, please make sure to visit Armin Strom’s website.