Armin Strom

The story begins in 1967 in Burgdorf, a Swiss-German city in the canton of Bern, where Armin Strom founded a workshop specializing in hand-skeletonization. He became legendary for the craft, his hands transforming raw movements into transparent mechanical sculptures. In 2006, preparing for retirement, Strom sold a 51% stake to entrepreneur Willy Michel and his son Serge — who, together with childhood friend Claude Greisler, had grown up literally hanging around Armin Strom's workshop as eight-year-olds, sharing a dream of one day co-founding a watch company of their own. Greisler brought serious formal credentials to that dream: eight years of training beginning in his grandfather's own workshop, a four-year program at the School for Watchmakers and Rhabilleurs in Solothurn, a two-year movement-restoration program at CIFOM in Le Locle, a further two years at CIFOM focused on complicated timepiece development, and finally a stint at Christophe Claret, the ultra-complications specialist. Serge Michel, scion of one of Switzerland's most prominent families, became CEO and business driving force; Greisler took the role of co-founder and master watchmaker. Together they transformed a one-man skeletonization workshop into a fully integrated independent manufacture, opening their own facility on Bözingenstrasse in Biel in 2009.

Everything the manufacture does flows from one governing idea: 'the science of movement,' expressed visually through what Armin Strom calls 'transparent mechanics' — an openwork design philosophy that deliberately exposes the movement on the dial side rather than treating skeletonization as mere decoration, so that the labor and precision behind each piece is always visible. Today a team of watchmakers and finishing specialists (36 watchmakers, 16 dedicated to decoration) produces 97% of movement components entirely in-house, with every watch hand-finished and assembled twice. That commitment to originality reached its peak with Resonance — the phenomenon by which two independent balance wheels, oscillating in natural synchronized harmony, regulate each other in real time and counteract the negative effects of wrist motion, gravity, temperature, and shocks. Watchmakers had chased stable resonance in mechanical timekeeping for centuries without success; Claude Greisler spent three years developing the solution, a purpose-built oscillation bridge suspension system called the Resonance Clutch, which transmits vibrations between twin balance wheels with unprecedented resilience against disruption. The Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CESM) independently certified the result as genuine 'True Resonance' — a rare instance of a watchmaking claim receiving formal scientific validation.

That innovation now anchors three collections. System78 — Tribute, One Week, Orbit, and Gravity Equal Force — carries the brand's transparent-mechanics design language into more accessible manual and automatic watches, including multi-day power reserves. Resonance is the technical showcase: the Mirrored Force Resonance (the original resonance wristwatch, offered in ruby, rose gold, ice blue, and manufacture editions, plus the Zeitgeist variant with its openworked twin oscillators on display), the Dual Time GMT Resonance (two complete, independent movements sharing one case, their two time zones synchronized by resonance rather than a gear train — including a notable Armin Strom x Revolution Tremblage collaboration), and the Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59, combining a chiming complication with resonance regulation. The Masterpieces collection houses the most exclusive expressions of the same ideas, including dedicated Minute Repeater and Dual Time resonance references. Beyond watchmaking, Armin Strom is a major shareholder in the Gurtenfestival in Bern, one of Switzerland's most beloved annual music festivals — a fitting side note for a manufacture whose entire identity is built around the idea of things vibrating in harmony.