Independents

Armin Strom – Inauguration of new offices and shop in Biel

 

Armin Strom – Inauguration of new offices and shop in Biel

The young Swiss watch brand Armin Strom inaugurated their new building in Biel yesterday and are inviting all for a visit.  This coming Saturday September 12th they are hosting an open house from 11AM to 7PM and all comers are welcome.  For those who can’t make this date here are my pictures and impressions of their new home.

The street front at Bözingenstrasse 46 in Biel.

The workshop wing of the building.  This building was the home of a watch part manufacturer which stood empty for some years before Armin Strom purchased it and renovated this spring and summer.

The first stop on the tour of the new shop goes to the ground floor where the parts making machinery is located.

For those who have been paying attention during my recent posts this machine will not be an unknown, an optical measurement system from Aubert.

Here we see the CNC milling machine from Charmilles in action.

The piece that was being milled above, a wheel with an interesting spoke shape.

With changers for both tools, as seen here…

and work-piece fixtures, seen here, this machine can work autonomously all night.

Here we see some bridges as they are finished on the milling machine.

The individual pieces are then finally cut out on the electroerosion machine below.  The electroerosion allows sharper corners and a better surface finish directly out of machining than using the milling machine for this step too.

Here we see a gear cutting machine in action.

The cut teeth can be seen just protruding from the fixture.

Here the finished gears.  I am wondering what they will be doing with these wheels with a tooth form like that.

This table is full of finished parts for the upcoming Armin Strom in-house calibre.  This calibre will be first presented in November and the first watches using this calibre will be ready for the Basel Fair 2010.  I was not able to elucidate any information about this calibre other than the first batch is in production and that it will soon be announced.  We will have to wait and see what they present.

Even in a highly automated shop hand work is still necessary to make fixtures etc.
In the background you see the CNC lathe from Star which is used to make the blanks for wheels and pinions that are then cut on the gear cutter, for example.

This whole shop is held at 22°C ±1°C.  When working with tolerances in the 1000ths of a mm even the expansion and contraction of the machines themselves with temperature is a non-negligible factor.

In this office next to the machine shop the designs from the construction office are converted into commands for the machines.  We see a barrel axle on the screen during a machining simulation.

Once the parts are made and have been inspected to be within tolerances they move up a floor to the decoration and watchmaking department.  Here we see some engraving.

The shops have big windows and are wonderfully luminous in the afternoon sun.

Some examples of part engraving.

When the Armin Strom finishes the skeletonising of a movement he marks the areas to be engraved with a red marker.

This is a machine to make côtes de Genève.

A small sand-blasting machine.

Here is a dedicated machine for perlage.

Here in the construction office is where the secrets of the new movement are all hidden.  On the screen was nothing that I could recognise, no help in finding out more about the new movement.

We move on to the watchmakers shop for final movement assembly.

The spring loaded setting of the Incablock shock protection is opened.

The jewel is removed, holding the jewel for oiling.

Using an oiler a tiny drop of oil is placed on the jewel.

Reinstalled, now the balance bridge is installed.

To have a maximum from light streaming in through the big windows on both sides of the building the separation walls are done floor to ceiling in glass.

After visiting the shop we take a look at some watches.  For a more complete tour of the collection please see my Basel 2009 report.  These are just some that struck my eye.
Blue Chip Chronograph

Skeleton Automatic in red gold

Skeleton Automatic in white gold with 54 diamonds

Armin Regulator Fire

Armin Regulator Earth

A special edition Armin Regulator Air with diamonds

Blue Chip Power Reserve in red gold

Armin Strom Skeleton Square Man

Armin Strom Elegance Man

After reviewing all my pictures I realise that I took no pictures of Armin Strom’s own skeletonising workshop.  Those of you visiting on Saturday can please share some pictures of that for us!?!

I would like to thank the team at Armin Strom for their kind reception and hope you have found this to be an interesting report about this new and upcoming brand.
Don