Armin Strom Orbit – First Edition
The Armin Strom Orbit – First Edition is the latest example of the firm’s innovative approach to horology. This new watch displays the date on its bezel in conjunction with a red-tipped date hand. However, a pushpiece, positioned at 10 o’clock, introduces a mind-blowing twist to the notion of a date display.
Armin Strom, based in Biel/Bienne, began producing in-house movements back in 2009. Having toured the Manufacture on several occasions, I can attest that the brand is the ‘real deal’. It makes mainplates, bridges, screws, wheels, pinions, pivots and, in more recent times, hands.
Strolling around the production facility, you see state of the art CNC machines along with wire erosion and profile turning machines. In contrast, a small team of artisans can be seen in a dedicated area. These specialists remove signs of machining and impart a number of traditional forms of decoration. Armin Strom may be comparatively small, but its watchmaking prowess stands in comparison with some long-standing members of horology’s elite.
From the outset, Armin Strom has never taken the easy route to success. For example, it began making openworked watches early on. These timepieces disclose a plethora of parts that are usually hidden from view. The objective is to make the movement an aesthetic element, removing material wherever possible while still maintaining essential rigidity. It is a practice that proves challenging even for companies with centuries of watchmaking know-how, however, Armin Strom demonstrated it was up to the task from day one. Such was the company’s focus on openworked watches, for many years its adverts featured the strapline, ‘We show what we make’.
The company is run by Serge Michel and Claude Greisler. Serge has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to market and sell watches that aficionados wish to own. Claude, Co-Founder and Master Watchmaker, is also an immense talent, responsible for conceiving numerous fascinating timepieces.
In 2016, Armin Strom released the Mirrored Force Resonance. Exploiting the phenomenon of resonance, the watch, fitted with two balances connected to an ingenious clutch spring, delivered superb precision and incredible rate stability.
Three years later, in 2019, Armin Strom released the Minute Repeater Resonance, which as its name suggests, combined resonance with a minute repeater. This unprecedented pairing featured specially shaped gongs, quite different from those fitted to other chiming watches. With this model the firm combined two high complications in one watch, something widely referred to as a ‘grand complication’.
More recently, the brand’s Gravity Equal Force addressed the issue of fluctuating torque serving the escapement. Unusually, the movement featured a motor barrel. Unlike a conventional barrel, the barrel housing remains locked after winding and the arbor transmits energy to the gear train. By adopting this approach the arbor is more stable, with less side to side motion, moving more precisely when driving the going train, and reducing wear.
In addition, the movement within the Gravity Equal Force was equipped with a stop-works declutch mechanism. This system restricts the mainspring barrel from turning to just 9 out of a possible 12½ turns. This means that only 72% of the mainspring’s possible torque curve, the flattest and most consistent portion, is used. It is this combination of the motor barrel and the stop-works declutch mechanism which ensures the power delivery to the regulating organ is as consistent as possible, keeping the amplitude within the optimal range.
Now the brand from Biel/Bienne has just announced the release of the Armin Strom Orbit – First Edition. This watch has an unusual date display. A total of 31 date values are shown on the bezel and a red-tipped date hand points to noon while in ‘stationary’ mode. If the wearer chooses to display the prevailing date, they merely press the pushpiece at 10 o’clock, effectively engaging ‘active’ mode’ and the date hand points to the prevailing date. A further press of the pushpiece and the date hand points to noon again and the mechanism returns to ‘stationary’ mode. Interestingly, the date mechanism remembers the prevailing date, hence when ‘active’ mode is actuated, the watch knows the current date and points to the correct value.
Throughout the month, the date hand advances clockwise until it reaches ’31’, thereafter a retrograde mechanism causes the date hand to move anti-clockwise, back to ‘1’. ‘Column-wheel’ mechanisms are used on high-end chronographs, however, Claude and his team have cleverly employed the system to drive the date mechanism. Quite simply, the brand’s ingenuity continues to shine brightly.
In the coming weeks, I hope to get ‘hands-on’ with the Armin Strom Orbit – First Edition and share my observations on ESCAPEMENT.
The brand’s press release
Armin Strom unveils a new creation endowed with a highly legible date driven by a column-wheel that can be activated and deactivated with the push of a button, all in a sporty package: meet the “Orbit” first edition, limited to 25 pieces.
With its System 78 collection, the independent Armin Strom manufacture seeks to create new and innovative expressions of fine watchmaking, with ingenious and practical world firsts executed in an unmistakable language of design. The latest addition to the line, the Orbit first edition, reinterprets the date – one of the most common watchmaking functions – by combining several complications in one in a totally new way.
Often present but rarely revisited, the date function is considered one of the most useful complications in mechanical watchmaking. More commonly displayed in a small aperture on the dial, or a pointer-style hand with the date on the periphery of the dial, the date function is a complication that has rarely been reimagined. And that’s precisely what Armin Strom sought to accomplish with the Orbit.
Claude Greisler, Co-Founder and Master Watchmaker at Armin Strom, recognized an opportunity. He says, “We wanted to create a new type of date display and function that looks good and reimagines a popular complication. No-one had ever created a watch displaying the date with an on/off function of this kind on the bezel. I love it because it’s a fun, exciting way to play with the date indication.”
Reimagining the date function
The Orbit’s most outstanding feature is its unprecedented and playfully imaginative date function. Entirely conceived, developed and built by the Armin Strom manufacture, the unique complication has been dubbed the “Column-Wheel Date”. As its name implies, the column-wheel drives the date mechanism, which is visible from the dial side. This system, typically found in chronograph mechanisms, enhances the date indicator’s stability and performance while also providing a satisfying and reassuring tactile experience when engaging and disengaging the date function.
The date is indicated on the bezel by a large central hand with a red “A” tip for Armin. The days of the month – 1 through 31 – are engraved in white around the circumference of the polished black ceramic bezel for a high-contrast and instantly readable effect.
The date hand essentially has two modes: stationary and active. When the date hand is in the stationary mode, it is essentially “off” and remains in its fixed position pointing at 12 o’clock, leaving the off-centred dial unobstructed. Using the pusher on the left side of the case, the date hand is ”engaged” and jumps to point at the correct date. In this mode, the date automatically advances once a day, at midnight. With another push of the button, the hand returns to its stationary position, with a mechanical memory allowing it to jump back to the correct date when required by the wearer. The retrograde mechanism allows the date hand to jump back from 31 to 1, avoiding any confusion with the hand’s position when in the stationary mode. The date can be rapidly set using a corrector button on the 8 o’clock position of the case or can be advanced manually via the crown by advancing the time.
Based on the development of the Gravity Equal Force that was unveiled in 2019 as the world’s first automatic watch with equal force transmission, the Orbit’s movement delivers consistent power to the balance, with a power reserve of 72 hours. Its “stop-work” mechanism within the barrel prevents the mainspring from fully unwinding, thus leveraging only the part of the mainspring’s unwinding process that can deliver power most consistently.
And true to the manufacture’s unwavering commitment to offering true haute-horology craftsmanship across its entire collection, the movement is fully hand-finished and decorated with features such as chamfered and polished edges, polished chatons and perlage graining.
Designed for daily intrigue
Its unique functionality and ingeniously chronometric movement are not the only attributes that set the Orbit apart. Housed in a 43.4 mm stainless-steel case paired with an integrated steel bracelet, the design of the Orbit allows for the technical prowess of the unique column-wheel date complication as well as the micro-rotor mechanism and equal force barrel to take centre stage, all while adding a sporty allure.
The bezel immediately conveys a sense of performance and utility while remaining visually sleek. Perfectly smooth to the touch yet highly resistant to scratches, the bezel framing the micro-mechanical spectacle within is crafted in ultra-hard black ceramic, which is engraved and painted with the dates.
The offset dial is a black-gold colour, indicating the hours and minutes as well as the seconds on a separate counter. The numerals, hour markers and the hour and minute hands are filled with off-white Super-LumiNova® for optimal legibility in the dark. A rare feat for most watch manufactures, the steel hands are manufactured by Armin Strom and, like all the visible parts of the movement, are meticulously hand-finished in-house.
This first iteration of the Orbit is further distinguished by the fact that the three bridges – the barrel, the micro-rotor and winding bridges – are specially coated in black gold. A testament to its robustness and irreproachable performance, the first edition is offered with a 10-year warranty – twice as long as Armin Strom’s standard warranty.
Serge Michel, who co-founded Armin Strom with Claude Greisler, says, “The Orbit is a pioneering watch that enriches our collection. We took inspiration from the functional bezels on sports watches, and the result was this unique date placement, which is at once innovative, useful and aesthetically pleasing.”
With the Orbit, Armin Strom has created a singular timepiece that is innovative yet functional enough to be enjoyed daily by even the most discerning watch-lovers, and different enough to keep them permanently captivated.
Further reading