Introduced in March at the 2016 Baselworld, the Edge Double Barrel is a manual-wind model, powered by a new Armin Strom Skeleton Watches Replica movement, housed in a 46.80 mm case. The ARM16 caliber is composed of unusual polygon and angular-shaped components and is visible from the front and back of the timepiece, through a sapphire case back. The cross-grinding surface decoration gives an industrial look to this watch with a captivating aesthetic.
The resonating balance wheels are part of Armin Strom’s new ARF15 movement, which is developed and manufactured in-house. Research and development took over two and a half years and a huge portion of it went towards finding the optimal shape for the resonance clutch. It’s a hand-wound movement comprising 226 components and has a power reserve of 48 hours delivered by two mainspring barrels, which are clearly visible via the sapphire display case back. The most critical of all is that it’s one of those few watches accessible that employs the principle of resonance in its timekeeping, which makes it quite distinctive. This brings us to our next stage, and that’s despite the technical motion of the watch, it stays highly legible and practical, which to me is a indication of superior layout and also a testament to the amount of work and thought that the team at Armin Strom have put into the watch.From a strictly functional and practical perspective, I find it quite difficult to fault this view. It even has a zero-reset role to allow users to admire and see the consequences of resonance on the job. The only question here is do you like the way it looks? And that is a purely subjective thing. I think that it looks fairly nice, the dialup, particularly, is mesmerizing to look at and very legible. If I were to nitpick, then I’ll say there is not much to see in the case back side of the watch and also that the finishing is a little cold. The Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance watch in 18k rose gold is limited to only 50 pieces and is priced at 67,000 CHF.
Many of the components of the ARM16 movement look very similar to Mr. Edge’s, the official ambassador of the collection. The creation of the artist Herbert Krake, aka Tarkin, serves as a communication tool. With his Transformer-like, brawny physique, the futuristic Mr. Edge makes an intense impression, matching the bold statement and design language of the Edge collection. The robot’s likeness will appear on advertising and marketing support for the collection, which Armin Strom plans to extend with forthcoming new models.
