Editor’s note: Like you, we are also excited for the Watches & Wonders 2022 novelties. Before we get to dive deep into them, here’s our preview & Gut Reaction Review (Grr…) of the new Armin Strom Orbit 1. For our detailed hands-on reviews, please head to our dedicated reviews section here. This is NOT a sponsored post.
The New Armin Strom Orbit 1 In A Nutshell
Finding a good date these days is hard. Especially thanks to the virus, for a while productions stopped. And then, perhaps the designers’ attention went to something else, maybe the GMT complication, given every brand this year seems to be releasing either a worldtimer or a dual time or a GMT watch. But of late it’s getting harder to come across a different date experience. After you have been in the game for a long time, the flavour seems to disappear. Every date seems monotonous. So it was a great pleasure that I decided to write about my date with a unique hot date, aka, the new Armin Strom Orbit 1, that reinterprets the rules of the dating game and becomes the first watch to display the date function on the bezel.
Since it’s special, and if you like me too are interested in this hot date, remember, it’s only allowed to date up-to 25 wrists.
Meet the new Armin Strom Orbit 1, a limited edition release of 25-pieces that’s bringing a whole new competition to the integrated sports watch game courtesy its highly legible date bezel that is driven by a column-wheel that can be activated and deactivated with simply the push of a button. Any date is a good date if you know how to push the right buttons.
Basic Specs Of The New Armin Strom Orbit 1
The new Armin Strom Orbit 1 ref. ST22-GEFD.75.ST features a 50m water resistant 43.4mm diameter and 12.6mm thick steel case with a fixed ceramic bezel and a stainless-steel bracelet with a double folding clasp. Those with slim wrists like me and concerned about the large diameter, please note that the watch has short-ish lugs, making the lug-to-lug spacing to be only 48.96mm (with 22mm interhorn spacing).
The black ceramic bezel nicely frames the off-set black-gold coloured dial and the three barrel, micro-rotor and winding bridges also coated in black gold. The dial also showcases a large central hand with a red “A” that points to the correct date when activated by the pusher in which instance it jumps to the correct marker reading on the bezel.
What’s even more impressive about your date with the new Armin Strom Orbit 1 is that it’s got a good memory too. As long as you put in the work and keep the watch running, its mechanical memory allows the central hand to jump back to the correct date whenever you want to go on another date.
And for those who like readability, the new Armin Strom Orbit 1 proves to be quite a bright date as well, considering the Arabic numerals, indices and steel hands — manufactured and hand finished by Armin Strom — are all in-filled with off-white Super-LumiNova®.
Inside the new Armin Strom Orbit 1 ticks the manufacture Caliber ASS20 which is a 35.52mm x 8.42mm automatic movement comprising 273 components and 30 jewels. It beats at the frequency of 3.5 Hz (25,200 vph), provides with a decent 70-hour power reserve, and features nice hand finishings including chamfered and polished edges, polished chatons and perlage graining, and also a nice in-trend micro-rotor can be seen through the exhibition case-back.
The new Orbit 1 retails for 29’500 CHF and was first announced on March 24th in the lead up to the Watches & Wonders 2022 March 30 to April 5 (both online and at the Salon).
Bottom line: not only is this a world first and a nice quirky way of depicting the date function, it also allows its wearer to be mesmerised by the horological prowess of the brand’s commitment to constantly innovate. With the new Armin Strom Orbit 1, you won’t be late for your date.
Quotable
“The Orbit is a pioneering watch that enriches our collection.We took inspiration from the functional bezels on sports watches, and the result was this unique date placement, which is at once innovative, useful and aesthetically pleasing”.
Serge Michel – Co-founder Armin Strom
“We wanted to create a new type of date display and function that looks good and reimagines a popular complication. No-one had ever created a watch displaying the date with an on/off function of this kind on the bezel. I love it because it’s a fun, exciting way to play with the date indication”.
Claude Greisle – Co-Founder and Master Watchmaker Armin Strom
To find out more about the new Armin Strom Orbit 1 and their other watches, please head to their website here. All images unless otherwise stated are courtesy are © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2020. ARMIN STROM AG. Make sure to check out our reviews of other Watches & Wonders 2022 novelties here.
