The experience of handling serious independent watchmaking usually begins before you even fasten the strap. You pick up the case, register the weight of the steel, and tilt it toward the light to check the angle of the hand-made bevels. With the new Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist Blue, all those elements bring an immense sense of joy. Across its dial, an interesting visual tension defines the layout. The right side features a traditional, off-centre dial in a stark white lacquer, paired with heat-blued Breguet hands. The left side, however, houses a vast, open-worked mechanical view set against a mainplate finished in a pale ice blue. It’s an understated, frosted shade. One that shifts beautifully under the light. But what else does this special chronometer offer the modern collector? Join me as I delve a little deeper.

Produced in a strict run of 10 pieces for Exquisite Timepieces in Naples, Florida, this edition gives Armin Strom’s signature resonance setup a relaxed, unpretentious character. To give the design some context, however, we need to look at how the brand moved from a one-man workshop to a modern manufacture.

From Burgdorf to Biel

Long before Armin Strom became a manufacturer associated with resonance tech and equal-force barrels, it was a one-man operation. Mr. Armin Strom was a legendary bench watchmaker in Burgdorf, globally renowned for his hand-skeletonisation. Using hand files and microscopic saws, he painstakingly cut away metal from stock movement plates until only a delicate, lace-like framework remained. Major brands regularly commissioned him to skeletonise movements for their high-end collections. But when Strom stepped back in the late 2000s, Serge Michel and watchmaker Claude Greisler took over, setting up shop in Biel/Bienne and immediately pivoting the business. Instead of just skeletonising supplied ETA or Unitas ebauches, they decided Armin Strom had to become a full-fledged manufacturer. And so it did.

That shift is why the brand holds so much weight with collectors now. Its Biel facility makes its own balance wheels, levers, and mainplates in-house. It also sticks to a brutal double-assembly rule. Every caliber is built, oiled, and tested for performance, only to be completely taken apart again, cleaned, hand-decorated across every hidden edge, and built all over again. Indeed, collectors who love to get into the weeds of how a watch is designed, tested and assembled are sure to find the meticulous rules adhered to within the walls of Armin Strom’s ateliers nothing short of fascinating. It is an exhausting, costly way to build a watch movement, there are no two ways about it. But for the small circle of collectors who track independent horology, that complete lack of compromise is exactly what justifies the price tag.

Re-Engineering a 360-Year-Old Phenomenon

The mechanics inside the Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist Blue watch are not new. They track back to a 1665 observation by Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. While adjusting his newly invented pendulum clocks, he noticed that two units hanging from the same wooden beam eventually synchronised their swings, locked into an opposing rhythm by tiny vibrations travelling through the wood.

Breguet and Janvier tried downscaling this effect for pocket watches back in the late 1700s. On paper, it made total sense because if you link two balance wheels together, an everyday bump is inevitably going to hit both systems equally but inversely, essentially deleting the timing error. In practice, away from a heavy grandfather clock frame, it proved much more challenging. A portable watch lacked the mass of a wooden floor beam to pass vibrations back and forth, meaning the two balances would fall out of sync the moment the wearer started walking.

Eventually, Claude Greisler’s engineering team solved this by taking a purely mechanical approach. Instead of relying on case vibrations or air turbulence, Armin Strom developed a patented steel resonance clutch spring that directly connects the balance spring studs of two separate regulating systems. When you wind the watch, power travels down two independent gear trains from two separate mainspring barrels. As the hairsprings breathe, energy moves across the steel clutch spring. Within minutes, the two balance wheels lock into a perfectly synchronised, mirrored rhythm: one oscillating clockwise while the other goes counter-clockwise. If a sudden movement knocks one balance out of time, the spring transfers energy between them, pulling both wheels back into synchronisation within seconds. This was a highly reliable solution designed specifically for real-world wear and would later prove an incredible innovation.

The Zeitgeist Formula in Ice-Blue

In Armin Strom’s design language, the “Zeitgeist” concept explores a specific question: what would a resonance watch look like if early masters had access to modern wire-EDM machinery, CAD design, and contemporary materials?

While the original Zeitgeist leaned toward a monochromatic palette of grey and rhodium, this new Exquisite Timepieces edition changes the mood with its ice-blue PVD coating on the mainplate and bridges, recontectualising the entire movement. Under direct lighting, the matte blue surface acts as a high-contrast canvas that throws the polished steel balances, the intricate clutch spring, and the black-polished screws into sharp relief. The colour emphasises the motion, drawing your attention to the dual regulators breathing on the left side of the watch.

This specific finish completely redefines the personality of the timepiece. While original grey-toned models were visually stunning but carried a somewhat cold, disciplined aesthetic, this frosted hue gives the watch a lighter, far more approachable feel. By inserting this colored plate, it introduces a sharp visual separation between the various mechanical components, preventing the openwork parts from dissolving into a uniform mass of steel. Instead, the finish establishes clear structural tiers that emphasize the genuine physical depth of the calibre. Under direct light, the hand-polished bevels on the top bridges gleam intensely against that muted background. It’s clear Armin Strom clearly aimed to build a beautiful object for collectors, not just a complex mechanical exercise.

Micro-Finishing Under the Loupe

The right side of the watch provides a quiet, legible counterpoint. The off-centre time display uses a glossy vernis laqué poli finish (a polished lacquered varnish that mimics the clean, depth-filled appearance of traditional porcelain). Crisp black Roman numerals and a traditional railroad track frame the space. Armin Strom also makes the heat-blued Breguet-style hands entirely in-house. Under a loupe, the bluing is deep and uniform, shifting from an ink-like navy to a vivid royal blue as it catches the light.

The hand-finishing on the open-worked movement bridges matches the quality of the dial. Despite the modern PVD coating, traditional execution is evident throughout. The edges feature wide, hand-applied chamfers that create bright, reflective lines against the matte blue surfaces, and the screw holes and jewel sinks are cleanly bevelled and polished. The lower mainplate features tight, even perlage, while various steel levers display flawless black polishing – a demanding technique in which steel is rubbed on a zinc plate with diamond paste until it reflects light as pure silver from one angle and deep black from another.

Flipping the case reveals the manual-wind Calibre ARF21_ZG through the sapphire back, highlighting the architecture of the dual barrels. The movement beats at 3.5 Hz (25,200 vph) – a steady frequency that keeps chronometric rates stable without putting too much friction or stress on the components. Armin Strom went with two independent mainspring barrels here, each feeding its own gear train. Together, they provide an 80-hour power reserve. It easily clears the weekend test; you can set it down on a Friday evening and pick it up on Monday morning without it losing a beat.

The twin-seconds flyback mechanism is the movement’s best party trick. A small pusher sits on the case flank at 2 o’clock, while two separate sub-dials track the running seconds for each regulating system on the dial side. Pressing that pusher resets both seconds hands to zero instantly without stopping the balance wheels. Beyond the tactile fun of a flyback reset, it lets you visually verify that the two systems are beating in perfect synchronicity. Despite the structural complexity, the movement dimensions are kept in check, as well. The Calibre ARF21 measures 37.20 mm across and 6.70 mm thick, packaged with 260 individual components and 39 jewels to mitigate friction.

On-the-Wrist Ergonomics

High-concept independent watchmaking often suffers from thick, oversized cases, but the steel chassis of the new Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist Blue is surprisingly manageable. It measures 43 mm in diameter with an 11.55 mm thickness and a lug-to-lug distance just shy of 50 mm. In practice, the short, downturned lugs hug the wrist well, making the watch feel a bit more compact than the 43 mm dimension suggests on paper. The case profile mixes brushed flanks with polished bevels, tapering to Armin Strom’s signature tab on the bezel at 6 o’clock—a historical nod to the era when Mr. Strom engraved custom monograms for clients.

Anti-reflective treatment on both sapphire crystals does a good job of cutting down glare, keeping the open architecture readable under harsh light. For water resistance, the case is rated to 30 metres, which is standard territory for a high complication. The watch is delivered on a light grey Epsom leather strap with tonal grey stitching and a steel pin buckle. The Epsom leather has a nice, grained texture that breaks in quickly from day one, while the neutral palette allows the ice-blue mainplate to do all the talking.

While the watch industry regularly markets “limited” runs that span into the hundreds or thousands, restricting a variant to a mere ten examples worldwide delivers actual rarity. Though it commands a steep retail price of $117,000 USD, the package delivers deep vertical integration, a patented approach to resonance, and top-tier manual finishing across a beautifully crafted movement.

Technical Specifications

Model name: Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist Blue
Reference: ST26-RF.EX
Calibre: Armin Strom Manufacture Caliber ARF21_ZGMovement
Type: Manual winding
Functions: Hours, minutes, twin-seconds, flyback reset, resonance clutch
Power Reserve: 80 hours
Frequency: 25,200 vibrations per hour
Case Material: Stainless steel with anti-reflective sapphire front and back
Case Dimensions: 43 mm diameter x 11.55 mm height x 49.60 mm lug-to-lug
Water Resistance: 30 meters
Dial: Off-centre white vernis laqué poli with printed Roman numerals
Strap: Light grey Epsom leather with grey stitching and stainless steel pin buckle
Availability: Limited to 10 pieces
Retail Price: USD $117,000

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