Armin Strom Orbit Manufacture Edition
The Armin Strom Orbit Manufacture Edition builds upon the success of its predecessor, the Orbit – First Edition. However, the dark grey tones of the former version have been supplanted by a new black offset dial and ‘silvery rhodium-coated’ bridges. Once again, this Swiss Manufacture demonstrates that independent brands have much to offer.
Independent watch brands have never had it so good. With an increasing number of horophiles discovering the joys of owning a rare or unique timepiece, many independent firms are reporting full order books and long waiting lists. Part of the allure of independent watchmaking is that the brands sometimes deliver innovative mechanisms or fresh-faced aesthetics rarely found on the local high street.
Armin Strom is located in Biel/Bienne and produces watches endowed with various ingenious features, including the brand’s unique resonance clutch spring, stop-work mechanism and motor barrel. This ingenuity is also coupled with an impressive in-house production capability. The ‘Manufacture’ makes virtually all movement components, save for the assortiment. Moreover, having visited the company’s site, I have witnessed plates, bridges, screws, pivots, pinions, levers, etc being made to incredibly exacting standards.
The Swiss firm has also made the movement a constituent part of the dial, a trait it has communicated with its concise strapline ‘we show what we make’.
Earlier this year, Armin Strom released the Orbit – First Edition, a model featuring a very clever date indication. The Maison looked at the column-wheel, a component usually found on high-end chronographs, and repurposed it for controlling a pointer date function encircling the dial. Reputedly, this is the ‘world’s only watch with a column-wheel driven date displayed on the bezel’.
Part of this model’s charm is that it reveals several parts that are normally hidden behind a dial. Indeed, several components are not only functional but, as a consequence of the brand’s design philosophy, aesthetic. When the Orbit – First Edition was unveiled earlier this year, it was limited to just 25 pieces. These were quickly snapped up by brand devotees. Now, the Manufacture has returned with a new, non-limited version of its ingenious timepiece.
This latest model accentuates its contemporary, sporty appearance by dressing its off-set dial in a deep shade of black, juxtaposed with silvery rhodium-coated bridges.
Lastly, Armin Strom ‘seals the deal’ with superb finishing, usually only found on the finest expressions of Haute Horlogerie. The brand states the hand-finished movement includes chamfered and polished edges on the bridges, polished chatons and perlage graining on the main plate.
It’s timepieces such as the Armin Strom Orbit Manufacture Edition, with its innovative approach to horology, that are helping to make the independent watch segment exciting, attractive and notably buoyant.
Price: CHF 29,500 / € 31,300 / £ 26,500 / $ 29,500
The brand’s press release
Following the resounding success of the Orbit First Edition, the world’s only watch with a column-wheel driven date displayed on the bezel returns in the Orbit Manufacture Edition, a piece of forward-thinking haute horlogerie with a resolutely sporty appeal. The new edition emphasizes contrast and sporty sleekness with a black offset dial and silvery rhodium-coated bridges.
Transparent mechanics on full display are a driving force for the Armin Strom manufacture, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Orbit. The most recent addition to the System 78 collection, which is the manufacture’s line of inventive and unexpected haute horlogerie creations in its purest form, the First Edition of the Orbit was unveiled in March 2022 and immediately appealed to discerning collectors. Now, the uniquely Orbit returns as permanent Manufacture Edition with an even more decidedly sporty aesthetic.
REINVENTING THE DATE
Visually captivating and mechanically ingenious, the Orbit completely reimagines one of the most useful and ubiquitous watch functions in existence: the date. By combining several complications into one, the “Column-Wheel Date” is a singularly creative and refreshing take on a complication that’s rarely ever revisited. Entirely conceived, developed and built in-house by Armin Strom, the Orbit flips the script by offering a new and unprecedented implementation of the date, with its inventive mechanics entirely visible on the dial side.
As its name implies, the column-wheel mechanism drives the date indicator, which is visible from the dial side. This system, typically found in chronograph mechanisms, improves the date indicator’s stability and performance while also providing a satisfying and reassuring tactile experience when engaging and disengaging the date function. Indicated on the black engraved ceramic bezel by a large central hand with a red “A” tip for Armin, the date hand essentially has two modes: stationary and active.
When the date hand is in the stationary mode, it is “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 instantaneously jumps to point at the correct date, then 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 disengaged 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.
Further enhancing the three-dimensional mechanical appeal of the Orbit Manufacture Edition is the movement itself. Based on the development of the Gravity Equal Force – 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. Renewing and evolving the wisdom and principles of watchmaking from centuries past, its “stop-work” mechanism is a clever solution to providing more consistent torque from the barrel by preventing the mainspring from fully unwinding, thus leveraging only the part of the mainspring’s unwinding process that can deliver power most consistently. This marks the first time that such a mechanism is incorporated in an automatic wristwatch movement.
And like all Armin Strom creations, the manufacture movement is finished to exceedingly high standards reserved for the upper echelon of haute horlogerie. Hand-finished and decorated elements include chamfered and polished edges on the bridges, polished chatons and perlage graining on the main plate.
A MEN’S COMPLICATION WITH A SPORTY ALLURE
Envisioned as a piece of haute horlogerie for daily active wear, particular attention was paid to the overall ergonomics and aesthetic of the Orbit Manufacture Edition. Rugged yet sophisticated at the same time, the Orbit ushers a new category for Armin Strom: Men’s complications in a sporty package. Perfectly integrated with the 43.4 mm stainless-steel case, the bracelet of the Orbit was carefully designed to offer a minimalistic look that doesn’t take away from the micromechanical spectacle within. Superbly finished with alternating polished and satin-brushed surfaces, the surprising slimness of the steel bracelet makes it exceedingly comfortable.
Compared to the First Edition, which predominantly features dark grey “black gold” coating, the Orbit Manufacture Edition emphasizes contrast and sporty sleekness with a black offset dial and silvery rhodium-coated bridges. The dial occupying the left side of the display indicates the hours and minutes as well as the seconds on a separate counter. The numerals, hour markers and 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.
Technically tantalizing and visually compelling, the versatile and unequalled Orbit Manufacture Edition now officially joins Armin Strom’s core collection and opens new avenues of creativity and mechanical marvels for the independent manufacture. While the Manufacture Edition is not a limited edition, it will be produced in limited quantities.
Further reading