Armin Strom has unveiled the Minute Repeater Resonance, the world's first timepiece to combine two complications: resonance and repeater. Featuring two vertically aligned movements, two types of resonance (oscillators and sound transmission), two independent mainsprings set in a single barrel, and the work of a leading development team consisting of Armin Strom (responsible for the resonance mechanism) and Le Cercle des Horlogers (responsible for the repeater mechanism), this truly is a two-in-one timepiece that's light and twice as enjoyable.
Manual winding. 51 jewels. 25,200 vph. Ti case (47.7 mm diameter). Water resistant to 50 m. Approximately 96 hours of power reserve. Only 10 pieces will be produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Armin Strom workshop. Price to be determined.
By sliding a lever on the left side of the case, two hand-polished hammers at 11 and 1 o'clock strike two three-dimensional curved gongs set around the hour and minute subdials, striking the hours and minutes. The hammers are visually and technically well-balanced by two independent escapements at 5 and 7 o'clock.
While the minute repeater's hammers and gongs were originally intended to be traditionally placed on the case back, the development team decided to place them on the same side as the resonating escapement, which is clearly visible on the dial side. This posed a number of technical challenges. Armin Strom not only wanted the resonating regulator and minute repeater hammers and gongs to be fully visible on the dial side, but Greisler and his team also didn't want the gear trains associated with the repeater mechanism and the time display to dilute the beauty of the animated resonance and repeater mechanism. Therefore, they inverted the two vertically stacked movements, placing the repeater and time display gear trains on the case back.
