ne of Switzerland’s best-known and best-loved summer music events, with headliners Rosalía and Angèle taking the stage for its fortieth edition this year, the Gurtenfestival in Bern is where we caught up with Serge Michel and Claude Greisler, the duo at the head of independent brand Armin Strom.

As the festival’s majority shareholder since 2019, Serge Michel was on home turf. A scion of the Michel family of industrialists and patrons (they own the Ypsomed medtech company), he was keen that the event should stay in local hands and that its original spirit remain intact. Thanks to him, the festival has survived the successive lockdowns that took their toll on the music scene and is back, stronger than ever.

Serge Michel and Claude Greisler

The best of friends

The Armin Strom brand has grown through similar values of regional and family ties, creativity and humility. Its founders Serge Michel and Claude Greisler (he comes from a family of watchmakers) were both born in 1978 and have been friends since childhood, when they attended the same primary school in Burgdorf in the canton of Berne. Which is where watchmaker Armin Strom, well-known for his skeleton watches, set up in business in 1967 and in 2006 began searching for a successor. “Back then I was working as a watch constructor at Christophe Claret,” Claude Greisler recalls. “One day I got a call from Serge. His family had bought Armin Strom and he wanted my opinion.”

This tiny skeleton watch (n°3), the work of watchmaker Armin Strom and fitted with an 11mm movement, featured in a 1990 edition of Europa Star

©Archives Europa Star

This was, says Greisler, the height of “manufacture mania.” Building skeletons on ETA movements was, in his view, “outdated.” He talked to his friend about the importance of bringing skills in-house to become a true manufacture. Initially sceptical, Serge Michel called back a few months later. He’d talked it over with his father: he had the go-ahead but there were to be no huge investments. This self-made man wasn’t going to plough money into machinery that would then stand idle! Claude Greisler joined Armin Strom in late 2008 with the remit to draft a realistic development plan for the brand.

A new dimension, with the arrival of the Michel family and Claude Greisler, and the opening of a manufacture in Biel/Bienne, as described in this 2009 article in Europa Star

©Archives Europa Star

The two friends set everything out on paper, from workbenches to a CNC machine for the new premises. Then it was all systems go: the manufacture opened in Biel/Bienne in 2009 and the first in-house movement, ARM09, debuted at the following year’s Baselworld inside the One Week, named for its seven-day power reserve supplied by twin barrels. A reissue of this model, which marked the “refoundation” of Armin Strom, was presented at Geneva Watch Days this year, in a slimmer case and beating at a higher frequency.

The One Week First Edition, a limited edition of 25, is a reissue of Armin Strom’s first in-house watch, with a steel case and integrated bracelet.

The One Week, as its name suggests, offers seven days of power reserve. The manual-winding ARM21 has two sequence-mounted barrels which are visible on the dial side. Frequency has been increased from 2.5 Hz to 3.5 Hz.

Good vibrations

There was still a long way to go. Claude Greisler has clear memories of those early days. “In 2009 we were 30 years old and convinced the watch world was waiting for a new brand. Except Armin Strom was seen not as a brand but as a personality. Becoming a brand took time.”

Certain collectors advised the pair to work on a new identity but “we had far too much respect for Armin Strom. He was a local legend, one of the few watchmakers in Burgdorf. He drove a red Jaguar E-Type and would fly Concorde to New York and back in one day. As children, we were in awe. He always used to tell us that mechanical movements were watchmaking’s greatest asset. He’s part of a generation of diehards who refused to give in to quartz and who used skeletonisation to reveal a mechanism’s beauty.”

Armin Strom unveiled its first in-house tourbillon calibre in 2013.

©Archives Europa Star

An in-house skeleton movement carries on the tradition of watches by Mr Armin Strom (Europa Star, 2015).

©Archives Europa Star

Following the takeover and despite having officially retired, Armin Strom stayed on for a few more years during which he continued to develop skeleton watches. Launched in 2014, the Skeleton Pure became the first skeleton watch to be produced entirely in-house at the brand’s manufacture.

However, the real turning-point would be the Mirrored Force Resonance, developed in collaboration with the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and introduced in 2016. “We dared to challenge theories and helped prove that there is never really an end to innovation in watchmaking. Throughout this project, we could feel we were on to something really important. Resonance had already been applied to watchmaking but we conceptualised it and this is what opened retailers’ doors and sparked interest among collectors. All of a sudden, they were coming to us.”

Introduced this year, the Mirrored Force Resonance Manufacture Edition Blue harnesses the physical phenomenon of resonance, a cornerstone of the brand. The two running seconds indicators, whose hands turn like mirror images in opposite directions, can be resynched with a pusher at 2 o’clock to visually track the state of resonance.

The Mirrored Force Resonance has two balance wheels, coupled one to the other, whose position on the dial side is a visual signature of Armin Strom resonance watches: the rapid pulsations of the balance springs together with the two balance wheels oscillating in opposite directions is a sight to behold.

Armin Strom’s research into resonance, presented in 2017 in Europa Star

A stable rate is the key to precise timekeeping. A resonance watch has two balance wheels that continually synchronise so as to continue to oscillate at the same frequency.

Also unveiled this year as a 50-piece limited edition, the Mirrored Force Resonance Manufacture Edition Green features an off-centre green dial with a textured grained finish. The visible movement remains key to the design.

Building on Christiaan Huygen’s experiments with resonance (Huygens invented the pendulum clock), the brand teamed up with CSEM to theorise this physical phenomenon for application to watches. Given the potential importance for the industry, a large part of the research was funded by a grant from the Swiss Confederation hence part of the findings can be consulted by the public at CSEM. However, the specific technology that Armin Strom applies to its watches is patented: it comprises a resonance clutch spring that transfers energy between the two sprung balances to rapidly create a state of resonance.

The resonance clutch spring is made from a single steel blade and transfers energy between the two sprung balances to rapidly create a state of resonance.

The principal difficulty during research was to maintain a constant state of resonance, and therefore precision, that was also reasonably resistant to outside disturbance – a particular challenge given that wristwatches are naturally more exposed to shocks.

The Dual Time Resonance is one of the brand’s most complex watches.

Armin Strom takes advantage of resonance in some of its most advanced models, such as the Dual Time Resonance (2018) and the Minute Repeater Resonance which it released for the manufacture’s tenth anniversary in 2019. This year the brand is introducing new versions of the Mirrored Force Resonance with an off-centre blue or green dial that has been hand-grained. Produced as two 50-piece limited editions, they are priced at CHF 63,000.

Two sides

Although resonance has become the symbol of the brand and its research capabilities, influencing the rest of its production, Claude Greisler is well aware that it remains a “niche concept” for the vast majority of watch buyers. “It’s like being a wine specialist. You appreciate the more unusual varieties but the general public are less likely to be interested in these more experimental products. This is why we propose, on the one hand, high horology models based on resonance and, on the other, simpler movements which, while being more affordable, are always beautifully decorated.”

Armin Strom has produced a one-off edition of its Gravity Equal Force with a constant-force transmission for the Only Watch 2023 charity auction. It incorporates this year’s colours of green for the transparent sapphire dial, red for the logo and blue for the strap stitching.

The Orbit rethinks the date display, which is shown on the bezel and operated by a column-wheel mechanism.

In 2020 the brand debuted its System 78 range of “quality watches that offer impeccable hand-finishing and innovation at a more affordable price.” Part of this collection, the Gravity Equal Force incorporates an ingenious stop-works declutch mechanism into an automatic movement. Generally a feature of a high-end watch, no other brand offers a stop-works mechanism at a price close to that of the Gravity Equal Force, which retails from CHF 18,000.

In this interview in 2019, for the manufacture’s tenth anniversary, Serge Michel talked about his wish to propose more affordable high horology watches that also incorporate state-of-the-art innovations. The Gravity Equal Force is a prime example.

©Archives Europa Star

The more classically designed Tribute 1 along with the sporty Orbit are part of this approach. The brand, which employs 35 people, plans to produce 450 watches this year, including 70 resonance watches. Its main markets are North America and Asia. It aims to increase production to 700 watches annually in the medium term and 1,000 in the longer term. “We prefer to stay out of the spotlight ourselves,” says Claude Greisler. “What matters most is that we hold on to our creative freedom.”