What has been going on at Armin Strom over the last year?
A lot of things. We have grown in numbers, we are now 35 people compared to 22. The demand – like with many other brands – has really grown so we have had to produce more, and since 2009, we have been working to increase the volume, so we thought it would be very easy to hire a few more people to do a bit more, but we had to completely restructure the company. If you want to scale up, you have to build another new company. So, we lost a few people, of course, because the new way didn’t fit their spirit of watchmaking anymore. We lost people, we had to hire people, and it was quite a challenge, but now we have a very strong young team. We have two new CNC machines. We can’t put them in our factory anymore because we are running out of space so we have a new space in Lengnau where the CNC machines will go to give us more space for the watchmaking workshops.
What are your plans for Geneva Watch Days?
We are relaunching our very first in-house calibre for Geneva Watch Days, which was called the One Week with a double barrel. We first launched it as an open-worked watch, then later on it was skeletonized, and now we are relaunching it because we still love the movement. I am a fan of long power reserves. So, it is still a one-week power reserve, and it keeps the same name, but it is a bit sportier. We have tried to give a new identity to the movement, especially in terms of the power reserve and the winding system, which is still on the dial side.
So, when you wind the movement on your wrist, you don’t only hear the noise, but you also see what is happening, you see the ratchet wheels turning, and it is quite a cool animation. We also wanted to be a little cleverer with the power reserve indication. The first calibre had the power reserve indication on the differential gear, and our Dual Time Resonance – the oval-shaped Masterpiece One – has the power reserve on a cone system. We got very good feedback from collectors because they love the cone moving up and down. So, we said let’s integrate the cone system into the One Week. It was all about exploring the power reserve and diving into the movement. It is also the very first time that we have had central hands.
Can you tell us about your Only Watch edition?
The Ultimate Sapphire is one of our best sellers in the Gravity Equal Force collection and we did an orange version, which got a lot of attention from our customers, so we decided to go ahead with this idea and integrate all the colours on the watch, so it is cool. The thing is you have to have one or two customers in mind when you are creating an Only Watch piece. I think this is what most brands do. So, you know that it will sell in seconds.
How has the company changed since 2010 and where do you envision it to be in 2030?
The main difference is that we didn’t have the Resonance in 2010, it came in 2016-2018, and that changed everything. We were ready to invent new things and this changed the company. We definitely want to keep the level of hand finishing and to keep growing but without compromising on quality. We will always do hand finishing. We are a contemporary brand, we are not a small, classic, independent niche brand that makes 12 to 50 watches per year; we make 400 pieces a year. But the objective is not for 2,000 or 3,000 watches; we would like to double the volume, or somewhere in between. In terms of our team, I think 60 to 70 people would be the maximum, otherwise we would lose the spirit of the company.
We are here at the Gurten music festival with Armin Strom. Can you tell us about this connection?
It is an opportunity to invite clients, press, friends, and colleagues. Serge [Michel] invested in the Gurten Festival because it is a local festival. His family is driven by art and passion and they are involved in different businesses within the Bern area- So, instead of having investors in Zurich take over the festival, where it could have become more about the numbers than about having the best bands, the best music, and the best festival experience, Serge wanted to keep the festival’s spirit going because he grew up coming here.
