Armin Strom’s Latest Limited-Edition Watch Has a Striking, Skeletonized Blue Dial

For about the last three years, Armin Strom’s strategy has been to offer its new watches in a First Edition of 25 pieces; these now include 10-year-long warranties and unique colorways that will never be offered again. The coloring of the new One Week First Edition is based on a striking light-blue PVD coating that provides a cool contrast between the new codes of modern horological design and Armin Strom’s hand-finished, in-house-manufactured watch components. And for the first time in this collection, the time-telling hands are found in the dead center of the dial.

Armin Strom’s redesigned One Week model reimagines its very first manufacture movement the young brand based on the skeletonized ideals of its namesake watchmaker. Its name derives from the seven-day power reserve of the manually-wound watch introduced in 2010, which was nestled within a large, in-house movement built around the ideals of symmetry, harmony, and stability. This year’s revamped stainless steel timepiece comes in at a svelte yet masculine 41 x 10.6 mm (as opposed to the original 43.4 x 13 mm). A side-by-side comparison of the two watches would leave most people wondering if they were at all related, and indeed almost every single detail is different—naturally, the contemporary movement is still designed, manufactured, assembled, and hand-finished right within the small Swiss company’s own four walls. But this watch’s evolution seems more like a revolution, if we’re being honest. A really good one.

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And it is entirely apropos as Armin Strom is today a much different and more confident company. What started as two ultra-talented childhood friends taking over the one-man business of their horological idol upon his retirement has become one of today’s hot independents boasting about 50 percent growth in staff (and certainly demand). With collectors racing for allotment of Armin Strom’s small, limited-edition runs, the retail price of $34,000 for this timepiece seems almost tame.

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