Manufacture
ED209 provides an exclusive look at the Armin Strom Coffret Tourbillon's stop in Beverly Hills, part of its global tour. This report offers a detailed perspective on the four unique timepieces, each representing an essential element, and highlights the brand's first in-house tourbillon calibre ATC11. Readers gain insight into the craftsmanship and philosophy behind these distinctive watches.
The PuristSPro Team joined the David Orgell boutique located on the glamorous Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California to welcome CEO Serge Michel and Head of Product Development Claude Greisler from Armin Strom. This event showcased the exclusive Armin Strom Coffret Tourbillon watch set as it makes it way to Los Angeles during the worldwide tour. The first presentation was made several weeks ago at Interlaken (Please click here for Don Corson's report); The second in Dubai; and the third just last week in Singapore ( Please click here for Kong's report). In fact, the theme of the four essential elements (Earth, Fire, Air, and Water) is represented by Los Angeles with the water theme on the shores of the Pacific ocean.
Photo by Anthony Tsai
Armin Strom created the Coffret Tourbillon set of four unique timepieces to commemorate their first in-house tourbillon calibre ATC11. The movement has double spring barrels and drive wheels that are visible on the dial side and provides 10 days of power reserve. The ATC11 beats at 18000vph with 24 jewels and is comprised of 184 individual parts. The tourbillon is clearly visible on the dial side at the 9 o'clock position.
After spending some time learning more about the collection and taking pictures and video, Serge and Claude gathered the guests for a presentation of the Coffret Tourbillon. Here's a video of the presentation as Serge tells us about the history of Armin Strom along with the development and features of their tourbillon:
Let's take a closer look at two watches, the Armin Strom Air and Water. The Air has circular polishing that represents the clouds. The Water was artistic with diamonds and blue sapphires setting on the bridges to represent water. In this video, you can see how the precious stones reflect the shimmering motion and brillance of the water element. Claude talks about the skeletonizing philosophy with a modern touch:
Here's a front view of the Tourbillon Water:
The Tourbillon Earth has a stainless steel case that is blackened PVD. One the features of this watch is that the plates and bridges are made with ceramic inlays. Here's a video of Claude taking about the inlays and the process of milling out the materials:
Another front view, the black case and subdials shows off the polished double spring barrels and drive wheels. The large crown was easy to wind and the movement had a nice and smooth feel.
A wrist shot on a average sized
wrist. I liked the thick hornback strap as it felt secure on
the wrist. A black rubber strap is included and so is a
stainless steel PVD'd double-folding clasp:
The Tourbillon Earth was popular. It seemed the guests were enjoying winding the watch to see the two drives wheels rotate.
I think the group favorite was the Tourbillon Fire. The plates and bridges are entirely engraved by hand with a flame pattern. Here's a quick video with Claude showing the Tourbillon Fire. It was interesting for me to learn about the development stages for this tourbillon. The process began in 2009 with the ARM09 movement. The press kit I received included a very detailed explanation of the development of the ATC11 and the special features of the drive mechanisms, the tourbillon cage, and the regulator.
I noticed a cool looking display with the ATC11 calibre used by the Tourbillon fire. The closeup photos here show the fire engraving on the plates and bridges that connect the double spring barrels and drive wheels.
The tourbillon regulator uses a overcoil spring with a Breguet end curve along with a screw balance wheel with white gold balancing screws. I was surprised to learn that (with a few exceptions) almost all the parts of the ATC11 calibre is manufactured in-house by Armin Strom. Components such as screws, wheels, pinions, levers, springs and plates. Screws, axles and pivots are machine turned in a lathe from solid brass rods. The outer shapes of the bridges, levers and springs are cut by wire erosion machining processes.
And a few more closeup photos of the ATC11 movement:
In addition to the Coffret Tourbillon s , several pieces from the Armin Strom Elements Collection, One Week Collection, Regulator Collection, and Blue Chip Skeleton Collection were available to everyone to handle and view up close. Anthony Tsai provided these pictures while we were viewing the watches . C laude Greisler gave us an over view of the collection and detailed explanation of the movemen ts , fini shing techniques and ske letoniz a tion. I will post more pictures of the collection, but
Dear ED209, Thank you for a very technical report with new information not covered by previous reports. The metalworking process was newly revealed. As usual with PuristS, when you ask 5 of them for opinions, you wil get 7 answers! In Singapore, we liked different elements of the Fire, Water, Earth and Air and the favourite was a combo of them! :-) I think Armin Strom needs to have a bespoked special order department........ Regards, MTF
It's a small brand which only makes 450 watches a year right now with capabilities of around 2500 watches a year with it's current manufacturing equipment. I like the price points of watches with inhouse movement (around $18k) too. The designs of these new Armin Stroms are usually a hit or miss with collectors. If you're a fan of the conservative designed Pateks, Langes, Breguets, VC's, etc., most likely you won't like the Armin Strom dials. But if you're a fan of sporty watches such as Panerai'
Combine the elements of Air and Fire into a single watch if you wish. You'll have to pay more, but Armin Strom lets you order custom designed watches. Cheers, Anthony
Hi MTF, Thanks for checking out the event report. Interesting point about bespoke pieces. Claude actually was wearing a bespoke piece and mentioned that there elements from different Strom watches that he liked so he made one for himself. There was another customer that requested a bespoke piece and IIRC was the inspiration for the Coffret Tourbillon Water. So bespoke pieces are available by special order. Regards, ED-209
I have not looked into Armin Strom deeply enough before... wonderful products! Thanks for the great work here.
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