Description
Armin Strom has unveiled the Dual Time GMT Resonance Aventurine, a 10-piece variant of the brand's flagship dual-balance Resonance GMT in which the sub-dials and visible-train fields are executed in Venetian aventurine — a glass-based material with suspended copper inclusions that produces a deep blue-black ground flecked with gold. It is the first time Armin Strom has fitted aventurine to a dual-time resonance reference, and the limited count of 10 pieces reflects both the rarity of consistent aventurine plates at this scale and the labour involved in matching their colour to the rose-gold-toned movement architecture behind them.
The case is unchanged from the standard Dual Time GMT Resonance in stainless steel — 39 mm × 9.05 mm × 44.5 mm lug-to-lug — and so is the in-house Calibre ARF22 with its patented Resonance Clutch, the mechanical bridge that synchronises the two independent regulating organs. Price is set at CHF 105,000.
Design
Two off-centre sub-dials are each dedicated to an independent time zone, and each is finished from a single piece of aventurine. The dial-side architecture is fully open, exposing the in-house Calibre ARF22 and the rose-gold-coloured oscillating elements that drive the resonance complication, framed by black azurage chapter rings that create a sharp visual boundary between the two time-zone displays and the movement architecture around them. The signature "lip" at 6 o'clock — a slight projection on the case profile — remains. Sapphire crystal both top and case-back is AR-treated to maximise the visibility of the dial and the movement, and the watch is supplied on a matte grey alligator strap with grey stitching and a stainless steel pin buckle. Water resistance is rated to 5 ATM (50 m), intentionally restrained — this is a haute-horlogerie object, not a tool watch.
Specifications
- Brand and model: Armin Strom Dual Time GMT Resonance Aventurine
- Case diameter: 39 mm
- Case thickness: 9.05 mm
- Lug-to-lug: 44.5 mm
- Case material: stainless steel
- Crystal: AR-treated sapphire
- Caseback: AR-treated sapphire display
- Water resistance: 5 ATM (50 m)
- Dial: two aventurine sub-dials (one per time zone), open architecture, black azurage chapter rings, rose-gold-toned movement elements visible
- Movement: in-house Calibre ARF22
- Movement type: manual-winding dual-balance dual-time GMT with patented Resonance Clutch
- Components: 231
- Jewels: 40
- Frequency: 25,200 vph (3.5 Hz)
- Power reserve: 42 hours
- Strap: matte grey alligator with grey stitching, stainless steel pin buckle
- Limited edition: 10 pieces
- Price: CHF 105,000
- Availability: now, through Armin Strom and selected retailers
What's Exciting
Resonance is, in contemporary watchmaking, the province of an extremely small group: F.P. Journe and Beat Haldimann at the very top, and Armin Strom as the only brand to industrialise a resonance complication as a serial reference. Of those, Armin Strom is the only maker offering dual-time-zone resonance — a configuration in which both regulating organs drive their own time-zone display and remain mechanically linked through a true resonance complication rather than a shared train. Pairing that movement with aventurine rather than precious metal is a deliberate inversion: the dial looks like a starfield while the movement underneath is among the most demanding modern complications to regulate. At CHF 105,000 it is also priced under half of what the comparable resonance pieces from F.P. Journe currently fetch — for a watch that is, by any technical measure, in the same conversation.
History
Armin Strom Watches as we know it was re-founded in 2009 in Biel, Switzerland, by Serge Michel and Claude Greisler — Claude Greisler having previously worked at Renaud & Papi and trained in restoration alongside the original Armin Strom (the master watchmaker the brand is named after, famous for his hand-skeletonised movements in the 1980s and 1990s). The contemporary brand built its identity around resonance: the 2016 Mirrored Force Resonance introduced the first patented resonance clutch in a wristwatch, mechanically linking two balance wheels so that they enter sympathetic oscillation. The 2022 Dual Time Resonance Manufacture Edition extended that principle into a true dual-time-zone display, with each balance driving its own time-zone sub-dial. The Aventurine variant takes the existing Dual Time GMT Resonance — itself one of the most ambitious complications in serial production — and treats it as a finishing canvas for the rarest reading of Venetian aventurine.
