Independent and audacious, the Swiss brand Armin Strom communicates a bold approach to watchmaking with its philosophy of ‘transparent mechanics’. The current leadership, Serge Michel and Claude Greisler, upholds the legacy of the eponymous founder and his art of hand-skeletonisation. Armin Strom creates distinctly subversive and high-complication timepieces that show more mechanics than metal with an elaborate and unique assembly of movement components. 

The story of the brand begins with Armin Strom, a learned watchmaker who opened his first watch workshop in 1967 in Burgdorf, Switzerland. In addition to selling watches, Strom indulged passionately in restoration services and developed a keen interest in the art of hand skeletonisation. Soon, he expanded from skeletonising watches for his patrons to recognised brands. He eventually earned the Guinness World Record for creating the world’s smallest hand-skeletonised timepiece in 1990.

In 2006, Armin Strom resolved to retire, thereby transferring his brand name and legacy to two childhood friends: businessman Serge Michel and master watchmaker Claude Greisler. The two men transformed the brand into an all-encompassing vertical entity by launching its first fully integrated manufacture in 2009. Now that the house developed, milled, embossed, hand-finished, and assembled movements independently, the introduction of its first in-house calibre ARM09 came shortly after the same year. Ever since, the brand has only worked to elevate the art with radical complications and unique aesthetics. Informed by a desire for unceasing innovation, Armin Strom’s revolutionary timepieces mark a new paradigm in haute horology. 

Armin Strom’s Transparent Mechanics

The brand’s philosophy of ‘Transparent Mechanics’ undertones each timepiece in its catalogue. Armin Strom watches primarily reside in three main collections - Resonance, System 78, and Masterpieces. The watchmaking feat this brand and Claude Greisler achieved with its acclaimed Mirrored Force Resonance is nothing short of spectacular and rather revolutionary within the industry. The watch, which won the Red Dot Design Award, was the first timepiece to offer chronometric precision while achieving an ideal state of resonance through a patented clutch spring design. 

System 78 features more entry-level watches that conform to fine watchmaking standards as well as the codes of transparent mechanics. Orbit is the first timepiece with an on-demand date indication, while Gravity Equal Force is the first automatic watch with constant force transmission. Lady Beat and Tribute 1 are elegant dress watches with the signature Armin Strom spunk. 

For the Masterpieces collection, Armin Strom redefines watchmaking with fiercely bold and unconventional timepieces, manifesting the brand’s ambitious vision. Minute Repeater Resonance and Dual Time Resonance watches that populate this collection are unique horological marvels with exceptional design and mechanics.