Since it started producing its own in-house calibers in 2009, Armin Strom has caught the attention of many and amongst its creations, the “One Week Skeleton” watch that drew praises from many for its great craftsmanship. The company is renowned for its skeletonised watches where its founder Mr. Armin Strom who specialised in the field, having made his name with skeletonised Omega timepieces. In this review, we took a hands-on look at the Armin Strom Edge Double Barrel.
The brand’s timepieces captivated many with its intricate details seen on its timepieces, the delicate work in engraving the details along with the inclusion of well-finished in-house movements. We reviewed their ground breaking Mirrored Forced Resonance watch earlier. But earlier this year at Baselworld, we saw the introduction of the Armin Strom Edge Double Barrel.
Armin Strom Edge Double Barrel
On first look, we see sportier elements added to the watch to enhance its aesthetic appeal, giving it a masculine look, this was echoed by director and chief horologist of Armin Strom, Claude Greisler, “The time is right for ARMIN STROM to step out with a stronger aesthetic. We’ve grown in confidence and are ready to be bolder about our vision and design,”.
The new Edge Double Barrel presents a unique timepiece in terms of its architectural design and as its name suggests, it is certainly bolder and edgier geometrically where we see the brand doing away with curves here but also retaining the brand’s trademarking shape.
The new Armin Strom Edge Double Barrel features a slightly different architectural design, with a strong industrial element to it.
Case, Dial and Hands
The Edge Double Barrel comes in a stainless steel PVD black case and at 46.80 mm in diameter, this proves to be a rather huge watch to contend with. As I took a longer look at this piece, I feel the bezel design strongly resembles the Manufacture Royale 1770 Micromegas Revolution’s casing except for the fact that the gaps between the edges are narrower and more pointed.
The skeletonised dial gives a clear look of the movement and its inner workings.
These edges give the watch a modern, sleek and cutting-edge look and this is complemented by its spider-shaped crown wheels that is the main attraction of the dial. Besides the crown wheels, we can see large Arabic numeral hour indicators along with a 60-second register with power reserve indicator, adding to the details of the already intricate-looking dial.
On the dial, the Edge Double Barrel uses large Arabic numeral hour indicators along with a 60-second register with power reserve indicator are clear and logical.
The Movement
The timepiece is powered by the Calibre ARM16, operating at 18,000 A/h with a power reserve of 8 days. The movement features an escape wheel and pallets made from massive gold with hardened functional areas and in terms of aesthetics of the movement, the plates and bridges are with cross-grinding decoration. We like the finishing of the movement where on closer look, we can clearly see hand-beveled finishes on it, indicating good workmanship.
Very well-finished movement along with interesting cross-grinding decorations on the plates and bridges.
An interesting aspect of the finishing is the cross grinding decoration, which at first glance looks like the bridge is left unfinished with scratches. But on closer examination, there is order in the madness, and the scratches are systematically done. The resulting effect is an organic feel to the bridge which we find rather attractive. The Italian term “sprezzatura” comes to mind.
The movement is also well designed and when you manually wind it, you get to see the movement in action from the dial face-on and admire the workings of it.
Concluding Thoughts
The Edge Double Barrel is a watch designed for the modern era, the aesthetics of the watch tells it all, its architectural design; bezel and dial resembles many industrial elements and would certainly appeal to the watch collectors who are into such industrial designs. Priced at S$ 40,695 inclusive of GST, the Edge Double Barrel is limited to 100 pieces and is certainly worth a look for those who are interested in skeletonised watches with an industrial twist to it.
