Horological Meandering

ED209
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Armin Strom The Coffret Tourbillon Tour - Beverly Hills Report Part 2

Anthony Tsai provided these pictures while we were viewing the watches.  Claude Greisler gave us an overview of the collection and detailed explanation of the movements, finishing techniques and skeletonization.

I will post more pictures of the collection, but in the watch display case we have (starting from the upper left) the Armin Strom Elements Manual Air watch that has a manual wind AMW11 calibre with a titanium case and matching titanium ardillon buckle.  It is paired with a thick white alligator hornback strap.  At 43.40mm case diameter the watch is large but fits rather well on my small wrist.  On the bridge near the balance wheel you can see the hand engraved element with cloud patterns on the Air.  Here's a closeup photo of the caseback that Anthony took:

On the Earth model, the case is made of stainless steel with a blackened PVD coating. 

From the One Week collection there were several models in titanium and another in stainless steel blackened PVD with the manual wind ARM09 movement  that has a 7 day power reserve and is comprised of 146 parts. The ARM09 movement is 36.60mm in diameter and 6.2mm thickness.  One of the nicest features of this movement is the front visible twin mainspring barrels that shows off the gear movement while winding.  When I spoke with Claude he mentioned that the double mainspring barrels are made of special brass alloy.  I asked him about galling and he said that it is a special brass alloy that was specifically developed for brass to brass contact. 

Here's a video that I made to show the dial and back side of the Armin Strom Earth model while winding the crown.  It was neat to see the dial side with the double drive wheels move.  If you look closely you can also see the engraved logo on the twin barrels.  One question asked during the presentation was if Claude would consider a larger balance wheel for aesthetics.  It would look good but the answer was that it is not as efficient and not nearly as accurate.

In similar case materials, the Regulator collection is offered with the manual wind ASR07 calibre.  The dial has the hours and minutes on offset circular subdial tracks, while the date is displayed by a retrograde hand spanning from the 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock position.  Power reserve is 46 hours and water resistance is at 50m. 

Production of the watches are limited.  Just like the One Week collection, the Armin Strom Regulator watches are limited to 100 pieces in each of the elements.  They are delivered with a matching colored alligator horn-back strap with buckle and a colored rubber strap.  I didn't have a chance to take closeup pictures of the double fold deployant, but I had very positive impressions of it.  It was very comfortable (I actually prefer deployants over tang buckles) and was both easy to activate and also felt secure.  Two buttons on the side of the deployant looked integrated and had alternating brushed and polished surfaces.  I was impressed with the PVD versions of the buckle, they were evenly coated and had a consistent black color.  A lightly etched Armin Strom logo is set in the middle of the buckle which adds a nice touch without catching on shirtsleeves.







Our fellow moderator MTF covered the F1 Singapore Grand Prix in September (Please click here for the report ), where he was in attendence with the Armin Strom staff.  Armin Strom is a partner of the Marussia F1 Racing Team.  I'm very familiar with this team as I'm a fan of their driver Timo Glock. One of the watches on display was the Armin Strom Racing Carbon.  This watch has the ARM12 manual wind movement with a 7 day power reserve.  Very thin carbon inlays were placed on the bridges and plates.  Here's a picture taken by Anthony Tsai:

I think a customer was picking up one of the Armin Strom Racing Chronographs.  Here was the watch in the presentation box.  The model shown here is the TI11-CR.90 with a automatic winding movement.  The case is titanium with a matt black colored PVD coating.  It has a solid dial and the Marussia F1 Team logo at the subdial at the 6 o'clock position.  The overall them with this watch has the matching black and red colors of the Marussia team.  This set is limited to 500 pieces.  From MTF's report on the Singapore F1 event, it looks like F1 driver Timo Glock's choice was the Racing Regulator that has the team colors but without the team logo.  The dial does have wording that the Racing Regulator is a limited racing edition on the subdial of the minutes display.

 I also noticed that the 18 carat rose gold models have a slightly different lug shape.  The stainless steel models look more sporty with angled lugs (like in the picture I have above).  The lug screws have a beveled circular flange around the screws that protrude out from the side.  However on the rose gold models it has a more standard smooth curve design without the external flange.  I think this was a good design choice as the rose gold models seem more of a dress watch and the stainless is more sporty or casual. 

We continued the evening with a short stroll on Rodeo Two and headed over to McCormick and Schmicks Seafood Restaurant for dinner.

Several watches were on display and also passed around the table for viewing

I've been dining at McCormick and Schmicks for many years and enjoy their consistent cooking.  I ordered my favorites by starting with the blue crab and shrimp cake accompanied with a tomato basil confit and a fragrant saffron aioli.  This was popular around the table as many others at the tabled ordered this as their appetizer:

And for my main course, I choose my other favorite which was the Hawaiian albacore that is wrapped in seaweed, dipped in tempura batter and cooked rare over a bed of sauteed spinach, mushrooms and tangy miso vinaigrette:

It was an informative and educational event and I enjoyed learning more about the timepieces offered by Armin Strom.  I had the pleasure of being seated next to Serge Michel and really enjoyed chatting with him during dinner.  Thanks again to Claude Greisler for answering all of our questions and presenting the Coffret Tourbillons.  And also kudos to Mr. Korosh Soltani of David Orgell for his warm hospitality. 

Regards,

ED-209