Wearables

Armin Strom's innovative Masterpiece 1 puts two movements side-by-side

Armin Strom's innovative Masterpiece 1 puts two movements side-by-side
The distinctive oval shape of the Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance makes room for two movements
The distinctive oval shape of the Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance makes room for two movements
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The distinctive oval shape of the Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance makes room for two movements
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The distinctive oval shape of the Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance makes room for two movements
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance has an oval case to make room for the movements
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The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance has an oval case to make room for the movements
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance has a 110-hour power reserve
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The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance has a 110-hour power reserve
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance reverse
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The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance reverse
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance movement front
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The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance movement front
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance is a limited edition of eight units
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The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance is a limited edition of eight units
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance back
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The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance back
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Sometimes two movements are better than one, as Swiss watchmaker Armin Strom demonstrates with its Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance wristwatch. The dual-display watch's two movements not only allow you to keep track of the time in two different zones, but they also make it more accurate thanks to clever use of resonance.

Dual time zone watches aren't anything new, but there's more than one way to make one. Most time zone watches rely on a single movement connected to a pair of dial displays that can be set independently of one another. In this way, one dial can track local time while the second can be set for GMT, a second time zone, or act as an elapsed time counter.

The Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance does things a bit different in that it uses not only two displays, but also two separate movements. This might sound a bit redundant, but there's a method behind this duplication.

The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance reverse
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance reverse

The Masterpiece 1 relies on the concept of resonance. That is, the tendency of a vibrating body to respond to another vibrating body that is oscillating at the first's natural resonant frequency. When this happens, the first starts to absorb energy and vibrate at the same frequency.

It's a common phenomenon, which is responsible for things as small as an opera singer shattering a wine glass or as large as the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, when improper design caused the bridge to tear itself apart in high winds.

As far as clocks and watches are concerned, resonance is much more benign. As early as the first pendulum clocks of the 17th century the concept of resonance was observed. Pendulum clocks swing with a steady, predictable beat and it was found that if two such clocks were hung on a beam, the vibrations transmitted between the clocks through the beam caused their rhythms to resonate.

The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance is a limited edition of eight units
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance is a limited edition of eight units

When this happened, the clocks synchronized and their timekeeping became more accurate. This is because the synchronization averaged out the differences in precision of each movement. In addition, it allowed the two clocks to remain accurate even if one of them took a bump.

It's an idea that been applied many times over the last three centuries, but Armin Strom has run even further with it to produce its resonance clutch spring, which can be seen on the Masterpiece 1 as it runs. It isn't directly connected to either movement's drivetrain, but it does transmit the vibrations of one to the other and make them synchronize in under 10 minutes of starting.

The company says that the resonance not only improves accuracy by 15 to 20 percent, but it also conserves energy by making sure less energy is transmitted outside the watch.

The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance movement front
The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance movement front

The Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance has an oval shape to make room for the side-by-side movements and for a larger power reserve. It's based on the manual-wind, 3.5 Hz (25,200 vph) Armin Strom caliber ARF17 movement, with the pair connected by the resonance clutch spring for a total of 419 components with 70 jewels. It has four mainspring barrels for a 110 hour power reserve.

The 59 mm case is made of Grade 5 titanium with sapphire crystal and it's water resistant to 5 ATM (50 m, 165 ft). The slight off-center dials have a hand guilloche finish with polished stainless steel hands and a 24-hour indicator at 6 o'clock. To finish it off, the Masterpiece 1 has a black alligator strap and stainless steel double-folding clasp.

The Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance is a limited edition of eight pieces and sells for CHF180,000 (US$179,000).

The video below introduces the Armin Strom Masterpiece 1 Dual Time Resonance.

Source: Armin Strom

ARMIN STROM DUAL TIME RESONANCE

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