Readers, it’s another long nomenclature indicative of open-worked splendour at the Geneva Watch Days. Armin Strom has spoiled us with ever-more complex takes on duality, where the watch case is mainly a slim-bezel amphitheatre for the dial. Armin Strom is more about the movement’s moving feast than mere markings and hands. And nothing explores that concept more than the new Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition.
True to form, the brand doesn’t disappoint, and for once, I’ll start with a focus on the case itself. With our love of more manageable diameters, we’ve seen the brand go from 43.4mm down to 41mm via the One Week, offering a strong new release with an integrated bracelet. This time, Armin Strom performs the magic trick of increasingly alluring complications within a smaller case again, with 39mm of 18K white gold. Bravo, chaps!
The lengthy name of Armin Strom’s new Dual Time GMT Resonance First Edition indicates its many charms. And though white gold might give off an air of stealth wealth, this 25-piece limited edition is anything but demure. We know a travel-practical GMT function can be easily displayed using a colourful extra pointer and a 24-hour bezel. But the visual drama of twin movements with Armin Strom’s Resonance expertise is something else. If your life is split between living and working in two separate time zones, consider this a crisply legible celebration of the equal importance of work and leisure.
Armin Strom’s founder, Serge Michel, says, “Having two completely independent watch movements in a single timepiece creates the logical demand for an iteration that displays two time zones. The success of our first Dual Time inspired us to build a smaller and more elegant Dual Time Resonance watch. We further developed our concept and arranged the two movements vertically to do this. And we couldn’t be happier with the result.”
Twin sky blue, grenage-finished dials are centred but vertically offset slightly below the mid-case point. With corresponding twin crowns, they show the time with polished baton hands and a raised black outer chapter ring for crisp legibility. Each also has its own rhodium plate day/night disc. The details are intricate enough to make each dial the main focal point of a haute horology watch on its own, but not here. They are almost subservient to the drama at 12 o‘clock and under the caseback.
Don’t get me wrong, you will notice the finishing on even the smallest dial markers but the movement is something else. It makes for top-grade loupe-ogling with the kinetic spectacle of Resonance being intriguing on a different level. Twin balance wheels are opposed and affixed with curved bridges for a start. Meanwhile, the hypnotic pulsation of Armin Strom’s clutch spring offers the pièce de résistance. It almost appears to be a living object, ‘breathing’ as it transmits vibrations between them to synchronize the running of the twin movements.
The case, with its new ergonomic size, is designed to maximise the dial space, with an insignificantly slim bezel. The requisite Armin Strom tab at 6 is present, while the alligator strap has a light blue lining and stitch pattern to match the twin dial art within. In the box, you will also find an extra light grey strap with pearl-grey stitching to switch up too.
I could easily write a separate long-read story only on the principles behind Resonance. It is a complex design of which Armin Strom is a worthy flag bearer. But I will leave you to go to the Armin Strom homepage to learn more. An open-worked flamboyance carries through to the rear underneath a sapphire case back, to no surprise. Here, the ARF22 movement boasts 231 components and a decent 42-hours of power reserve. That might seem on the low side today. But with two independent regulating systems connected by a resonance clutch spring, the power consumption is significant. All are shown symmetrically with twin tones of anthracite gray and clean Côtes de Gèneve striping.
Nicely bookending the story on the Armin Strom Dual Time GMT is the price of £114,000, a welcome surprise compared to what could easily be triple that price from another brand. What’s more, Armin Strom has pulled off the magic trick of offering this menagerie of magic within a mere 9.05mm thick case, which combined with the diameter makes this all the more astounding for its size. Is this one of the strongest releases of the Geneva Watch Days?
Price and Specs:
More details at Armin Strom.
