Pre-Baselworld 2016 – Introducing the Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Earth (Black PVD)

When talking Armin Strom, the concept of the 4 elements always comes in mind: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. These 4 are in fact guiding the Armin Strom collections, to create several themes around a same watch. Gold for the Fire editions, titanium and grey for the Air editions, blue for Water versions and black PVD for earth models. Simple, easy to remember and now applied to all the watches of the collection, including the Gravity and the Skeleton Pure. This also goes for the most advanced of the Armin Strom watches, the Skeleton Tourbillon (showed to you already in the Fire Edition), that comes in a new edition, the Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Earth – and you’ve guessed, it’s black PVD coated.

The new Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Earth is built on the same technical base as the one we showed to you earlier this year, the Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Fire, with its 18k pink gold case and grey coated movement. On the Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton, the 60-second tourbillon, placed in a dedicated aperture at 9, is combined to a directly driven small second, placed just on top of the axis of the cage. The rest of the movement is known, with its 2 large barrels providing 10 days of power reserve and the superb opened bridges, with haute-horlogerie finish (straight graining on the flat surfaces and highly polished bevelled bridges with internal angles done by hand).

The movement, in the tradition of the watches manufactured by Armin Strom, is entirely skeletonized, with all plates and bridges opened to reveal the wheels, pinions and barrels. This movement is not the kind of old school opened movement, with lots of decorum and engravings. It is very pure, architectural and modern. Finish is superb and technical – and this goes for both sides of the watch. What impresses is really the attention to details and the layout of the movement, which was conceived from the beginning to be opened, something that makes quite a difference compared to a normal movement that is after opened.

The new Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Earth differs from the previous edition not in terms of mechanics but in terms of design. At Armin Strom, the “Earth” concept means dark watches. And this new Tourbillon Skeleton Earth doesn’t break the codes. The 43.4mm case, with the signature shape of the brand (including the “lip” at 6 that can be engraved), is made in stainless steel, then coated in black PVD. The same treatment is applied to the main plate. The rest of the movement is rhodium plated, thus contrasting with the dark background. The Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton Earth will be delivered on a black alligator horn-back strap and double-fold clasp in stainless steel PVD black as well as an additional black rubber strap.

We’ll get back on this watch more in details – and also on the rest of the Armin Strom Tourbillon Skeleton collection (including the pink gold Fire edition and the titanium Air edition) – during Baselworld 2016. Price is € 90,200 Euros. More details on www.arminstrom.com.