I must confess — this is not the first time I’ve seen the new Armin Strom One Week. Yes, it was just launched at Geneva Watch Days 2023, and its debut came at the point where the focus of the watch world was entirely on the events and happenings in this city. My first glimpse of the new One Week, however, was in July, when I was able to get a preview of the piece from Armin Strom’s co-founder and master watchmaker, Claude Greisler, and was lucky enough to get a detailed breakdown of its various improvements.
The One Week is a milestone watch for Armin Strom, representing the beginnings of its era of rebirth in 2010. Back then, the One Week was the first Armin Strom watch with an in-house movement, and marked the brand’s transition into a verticalised manufacture with a specific horological philosophy and mechanical identity. Its long power reserve and symmetry of construction established cornerstones of watchmaking at Armin Strom — dedicated to functionality and contemporary aesthetics.
As a result, the 2023 revival of the Armin Strom One Week revisits and reinforces the horological codes that we have come to associate with the brand, but brings mechanical improvements that will resonate with those who love and appreciate the finer points of technical watchmaking.
The long power reserve continues to be the defining point of the new One Week, along with its manual-winding system. The series-connected twin barrels, however, now offer better isochronism, in that the movement torque remains more consistent over the duration of the power reserve. This may sound like a minor point, but better isochronism leads to greater stability in chronometric performance, which ultimately leads to a more reliable watch.
On the same theme, the movement now boasts a higher balance frequency, from the 2.5Hz (18,000vph) of the original One Week to 3.5Hz (25,200vph) in the current version. Once again, a higher balance frequency increases the resistance of the watch against shocks and other external perturbations, which makes the watch more robust.
These two improvements, an increased power reserve and a higher balance frequency, are actually in contradiction — watches with higher beat rates have shorter power reserves as a general rule. To have both improvements in the same watch means significant optimisation in terms of how the movement works.
In terms of design, the new Armin Strom One Week leans heavily into the aesthetic that has defined the brand in recent years — open dials, geometric bridges and restrained finishing that focuses on subtle textures. On the left side of the watch, the mechanism behind the power reserve indication is revealed, from the conical cam to the ruby feeler that moves a rack to transmit information about the power reserve to the indication at 11 o’clock.
For the launch edition of the new Armin Strom One Week, the watch comes with PVD-coated light-blue plates and bridges, and comes with an extended warranty of 10 years (double the usual warranty period of Armin Strom). In a 41mm diameter case, the watch is highly versatile and will accommodate a variety of wrist sizes, which is a pity that it will only be available in a series of 25 pieces — but of course, more editions will follow. The watch may be called One Week, but clearly its appeal endures far longer than that.
