elemental

Armin Elements Regulator Watch Collection

"Armin" is a new branding exercise from the watch maker Armin Strom, who began the brand in 2006. Taking his last name out, he also moves on to much sportier models, maintaining their high level of exclusivity. The new Elements collection is a fascinating line of watches based on a new Armin in-house movement; the Armin Strom calibre ASR07. The movement is a manually wound (with 46 hours of power reserve) regulator movement that includes a date complication. All information is laid out in subdial, with the minutes and date dials using retrograde indicators. The theme involves uses of overlapping circles that together present a partially skeletonized, yet functional display of the time.

The Elements collection focuses on four models. You guessed it, they are the Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air. As such, the color tones of the watch cases, dials, and straps attempt coordinate with their specific elemental theme. Each 43mm wide case is constructed out of titanium, with models like the Fire being plated in gold, and black PVD coating on the Earth model. Each strap is a shaded tone of alligator leather. The look of this limited edition (100 of each model) series is endearing, and consistent enough to look good years from now, even when the techie skeletonized look has officially past its prime.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: Armin Elemental Watch collection