There are just five of these in existence. Released today, the Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby is Armin Strom‘s most audacious dial statement yet. Claude Greisler, the master watchmaker who revitalised the brand in 2009, has long held that materials must carry meaning beyond aesthetics. In ruby, he finds a material that earns its place on both the dial and inside the movement. At CHF 85,000, it is the price of total conviction.
A Dial Cut From Time
The dial commands immediate attention. Armin Strom sourced genuine ruby, worked with a local stone artisan to cut and finish each piece, and placed it off-centre with an azuré surface treatment. Under different light, the tones shift from deep crimson to vivid red, never static and never predictable. White printed Roman numerals sit on the stone, grounding the composition without diminishing it. No two dials are identical: fine inclusions and tonal variations are natural features of a material formed over millions of years. That individuality is precisely the point.
Calibre ARF21: The Architecture of Resonance
The manually wound Calibre ARF21 is entirely in-house, designed, developed, and produced in Biel. Its patented Resonance Clutch connects two independent oscillating systems, each with its own gear train and barrel. The two balance wheels beat in opposite directions, progressively synchronising via the clutch spring to continuously average out positional errors. Operating at 3.5 Hz (25,200 vph) with a 48-hour power reserve, the movement runs 276 components across 39 jewels, and a pusher at 2 o’clock delivers a simultaneous flyback reset of both seconds counters, offering a live demonstration of the synchronisation in real time.
The finishing deserves equal attention. Hand-polished bevels, black-polished screws, perlage, and circular graining cover the dial side, and Geneva stripes run across the reverse. Armin Strom assembles every watch twice: once for mechanical validation, once for finishing verification. Worth noting here is that the 39 jewels include synthetic ruby bearings inside the calibre itself. Natural ruby on the dial, engineered ruby in the movement. Greisler closes the loop between symbolism and function, and that coherence is not accidental.
A Case Built for the Occasion
The 43 mm stainless steel case measures 11.55 mm in height with a 49.60 mm lug-to-lug distance, which means it sits solidly on the wrist. That presence is exactly right for a watch carrying this horological weight. Anti-reflective treatment covers both the sapphire crystal and the case back, keeping the view into the movement sharp. Water resistance reaches 3 ATM. Rhodium-polished hands read cleanly against the ruby surface, and the dark grey Alcantara strap with white stitching adds a tactile, considered contrast that keeps the watch from feeling purely ceremonial.
Five Pieces, One Argument
The Mirrored Force Resonance Ruby costs CHF 85,000 and exists in just five examples. That scarcity does not manufacture its importance: the watch earns it. The ruby connects the dial to the movement in a way that goes beyond visual harmony, because the same material that reduces friction inside the gear train now carries the colour and character of the watch’s face. Armin Strom builds a coherent argument across every element, and that is ultimately what separates a watch that impresses you from one that genuinely stays with you.
