Armin Strom Edge Review

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TimelessLuxWatches
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Armin Strom Edge Review

Post by TimelessLuxWatches » Sat May 28, 2016 12:09 am

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Armin Strom's new Edge is a bigger, bolder, and more aggressive interpretation of their avant garde style that features the same traditional high-end movement designs that are familiar to Armin's fans.

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The Armin Strom Edge is quite a departure for the haute horology brand. Up until now, Armin has mainly produced a single style of case, albeit in many different materials.

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The style departure is fairly radical. While Armin Strom has always been deeply avant garde in design, there are few, if any, that I'd really classify as "tactical". The Edge, however, certainly is. The notched, black case, the red accents, the red-stitched camo strap, these are all very aggressive touches.

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The aggressive styling has even been carried to the movement design. Armin Strom has always been one to customize each movement, rarely recycling a top plate between any two models, even two of the same model (like the One Week Water versus One Week Fire). In the Edge, it receives what I'd call a stonewash finish to the top plate, giving it a very rugged, tool-watch appearance.

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At the same time, the Edge remains distinctly Armin Strom. The trademark off-centered "dial" (which is basically the mainplate of the movement), the shape of the hands, the "lip" between the lugs, and the all-around irreverence for conventional design is still present.

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The dial is the aspect of the Edge that is most traditionally Armin Strom. All the major elements are there, the off-centered dial (and movement), the sub-seconds at 9:00, and the skeletonized mainplate showing dual going barrels.

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Up close, however, you can notice some subtle differences, the most obvious of which is the stonewash finish that is shared with the top plate on the back. Armin Strom has experimented with this finish before, on their Gumball and Racing collections, but it's still definitely the exception.

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What is very unique to this watch is an all-new "dial ring". Most Armin Stroms have a dial ring with ticks instead of numerals. The few that do have numerals count minutes, not hours, with the exception of the 12 up top. Here we have a full ring of bold Arabic numerals in silver. I quite like it, actually.

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The seconds subdial is new as well. The seconds hand itself is new, but so is the design of the power reserve in general. It's actually painted on the disk beneath the seconds hand, which rotates, not unlike the Tudor North Flag's power reserve. It's a smart design that keeps the seconds and power reserve hands from being stacked above the dial, possibly creating interference with the two main hands.

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The hands haven't changed, however. They're still the same broad, fine-tipped and heavily lumed batons as always.

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Armin Strom, as usual, doesn't make wide use of luminescent paint in the Edge, but the hands receive a pretty impressive amount on their own. It's still quite legible at night.

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Another aspect that is unchanged, and really one of Armin Strom's trademark features, is the skeletonized going barrels. When virtually any other watch brand produces a skeletonized dial, they always make sure to put the escapement in the spotlight. Armin Strom does it the opposite way, excepting a few of their watches like their tourbillons, giving all the attention to the going barrels. This is actually pretty cool because you can see them turn when you wind it. That doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot more impressive in person.

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All in all, the dial is still very Armin Strom, just a much sportier version of Armin Strom. If you liked Armin's avant garde dials in the past, you'll probably like this one. I particularly liked the new numerals, which look great.

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The case for the Edge is all new, and it's really what's gotten it the most attention. For starters, it's larger at 46.8mm. Armin Stroms are ordinarily 43.40mm, so it's not as if they were small to begin with. But the important thing is the new design, not the measurements.

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For starters, this is the first Armin Strom with a crown guard, another attribute that makes this watch appear sportier.

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Up until now, all Armin Stroms have had a smooth bezel. The Edge adds these deep, evenly spaced notches to it. Armin Strom chose to keep the "lip" at 6:00, one of their trademarks.

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Here's another view of the notches. The Armin Strom is reasonably thin, given its size, although it is on the large size for a manual wind watch. Still, you don't wear an Armin Strom (much less the Edge) for its subtlety.

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Here we get a better view of the signed crown and crown guard. The crown guard actually works really well with this design. Unsurprisingly (for a manual wind watch), the crown does not screw down. It's good for 50 meters of water resistance, which is frankly far more than this watch will ever need.

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The case is PVD coated black. PVD coatings are actually pretty common in Armin's lineup, so this is not, in itself, very remarkable, but it does contribute to the aggressive appearance.

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The new case isn't a radical departure for the brand, but it is a nice addition. They've made dozens of different models and yet they've basically used just one case style (albeit with different coatings and materials), so a second case option, and especially a second size option, is quite welcome. I've got no doubt that the Edge will become its own line of watches, with a variety of movements and complications, based around this new case.

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I normally don't write about the strap or bracelet, but the Edge's was so interesting I thought I had to. The construction is very similar to other Armin straps, being very thick and having a bit of cushion, but the black and white camo with red stitching is very provocative.

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Movements are extremely important to everything Armin Strom does. This is, in part, due to the fact that you can see the movement from both sides of every single watch they make. But Armin has taken a much more rugged looking approach with the embellishment here. Despite the tough looks, the design is very traditionally Swiss high-end.

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We'll start where we always do, with the escapement, the series of components that is responsible for keeping time. The ARM16 movement takes a very traditional, and very high-end, approach to the design. Here we've got a free sprung balance with Breguet overcoil. It oscillates at a leisurely, and similarly old-school, 18,000 BPH. In the way of Patek, Armin continues to avoid implementing a hacking feature.

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It's mounted on a rather unusual skeletonized balance bridge. I think this is the first time Armin has used this particular bridge, making it unique to the Edge. It appears a lot larger and more robust than the balance bridges they use elsewhere, although given the intrinsic toughness of a bridge (as opposed to the more common balance cock), I've got no doubt that they're all pretty resilient.

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I particularly love this completely unnecessary skeletonized power reserve complication. Why can we see it? Who knows, but it looks really cool for some reason.

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Armin Strom has good reason to put a power reserve complication on the watch, however. With an absolutely massive 8-day reserve, powered by these gorgeous going barrels (and yes, you can watch them turn as you wind it, which is quite mesmerizing), you're often going to forget when it was less wound.

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The ARM16 has an interesting way of noting its features. Many great movements, be they from Patek Philippe or Grand Seiko, engrave the qualities of the movement into the top plate. Armin has actually mounted the plate via three screws, so it actually stands maybe 0.25mm above the rest of the movement. I also like how they bothered to align those tiny screws. This replaces the "bullet" plate they use on their other movements.

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So, aside from the finishing, not much has changed here, but that's a good thing. It's hard to find an old school, high-end movement these days, excepting the ultra-high end at any rate. The combination of a free sprung balance and Breguet overcoil, as well as being adjusted in five positions, should contribute quite a bit to its stability. An 8-day power reserve is pretty amazing at any price. Furthermore, fans of low frequency movements (there are more than you think) will be really happy with the 18,000 BPH of this one. All in all, an absolutely superb movement.

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Check out our video of the new Armin Strom Edge here!

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The Armin Strom Edge really does what an all-new watch ought to do: it does things differently from the existing models, yet has a strong familial heritage. While being recognizably Armin, it manages to be the sportiest model yet. I really like the new dial ring and case. I’d like to see it available in a second, smaller size as well. But who knows, maybe 2017 will see another size of Edge.

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The movement, aside from a new balance bridge and a variety of new aesthetic touches, is traditional Armin, which is another way of saying it's traditional Swiss. It ticks every box that you'd expect from a high-end Swiss movement: free sprung balance, Breguet overcoil, balance bridge, long power reserve, it's got them all. There are too few manual winds these days, and I'm glad Armin really focuses on them (although they do also make microrotor automatics).

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So there you have it, a very cool all-new Armin Strom. Armin doesn't really know the meaning of subtlety, but before the Edge, I'd say their offerings were more avant garde than aggressive. The Edge, conversely, is avant garde and aggressive. Check it out here.

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