NWA: Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance

[WatchEater666]

For years, I have loved the idea of a watch with a resonance function…but nothing out there was quite right.

Then I stumbled upon the original AS Resonance, but couldn’t find owner reviews on them, and didn’t love the large case lip. The original resonance design from AS lacked refinement, it looked very v1.

A little later AS released the Mirrored Force Resonance…

This watch featured an upgraded movement, a case design I liked, and it’s ultimately what I ended up ordering. Overall it felt like the brand’s design had matured a lot into something more refined. With design issues solved, I had no more excuses; the new model put it into the must own category instead of the “maybe if I can find one cheap”.

I’m pretty patient and figured a used one would pop up, but one never did… I guess people really like them. Even from the time I put my order in last year, I haven’t seen one pop up for sale.

I ended up reaching out to Topper Jewelers (thx Jay!) and convinced my friend Mike to order one too at the same time! So he has a bit of a “twin” to this watch. I am a total sucker for customization, so I went back and forth with Jay at Topper and Claude from AS until we settled on this design.

It’s a piece unique Mirrored Force Resonance with a rose gold frosted movement, off white dial, and heat blued hands. I wanted rose gold and off white to warm up the relatively industrial design. I think it worked well. Very happy with the end result aesthetically, as I feel it fixes the industrial aesthetic of the stock version.

For me this watch is the perfect combination of a few key factors that are important to me in a watch; design, craftsmanship, and engineering.

Some thoughts around various aspects of the watch:

The movement. The AS resonance movement is independently verified to work as a true resonance mechanism by a Swiss scientific agency, and incredibly thin. The watch is only 11.55mm thick! It’s incredible to me that a relatively small company could engineer something like this, but it makes more sense when you learn that one of the current founders used to work for a brand that developed hyper complicated movements for other brands. Even better is the architecture of the movement. There are many open worked watches floating around, but few do a good job of ensuring the movement is laid out in an aesthetically pleasing way. Watching the dial balances in action is super fun. As a fun little bonus, the back says piece unique! I didn’t realize they would do that. This movement also features 80 hours of power reserve which is handy as I rotate through quite a few watches during the week.


The people. No dumb games and being able to work directly with one of the brands cofounders on a bespoke piece was a lot of fun. I’ve had bad experiences dealing with big brands that permanently ruined the brand for me, so this is a welcome change.


This is a very well finished watch for something in its price range with the complication featured. AS offers incredible value here in my opinion relative to competitors. I took some macro pics with my iPhone to try and show what I mean.

Examples of the finishing:
-The dial features a grenage finish in the center area which looks like a matte pearlescent thing? Not sure how to explain it. It’s very clear in videos. When you zoom in with a macro lens, it just looks matte. Cool effect that I haven’t seen on another watch yet. The outer ring of the dial has a pattern as well which isn’t overly visible unless you look carefully, and the printed is beautifully executed. Very very clean! Finally, the indices on the dial are very well polished.

-Anglage throughout the watch is thicc and clean. On the seconds hands, the bridge holding them has a good example of this, as does the back of the watch, which features several internal angles, and the signature 60 degree AS anglage. The frosting on the bridges is also very very nice!

-Extensive black polishing. You can get a good idea of this by looking at some of the whole watch pics attached. The click is a nice example of this.

-Plenty of graining/brushing like on the sides of the balance wheel bridges, dial side components, and the back of the watch.


The case is more interesting that it appears in pics. I was a little worried it would be too boring and sterile like Lange, but it’s has a very refined and aggressive feel to it. I’m very pleased as this was the one spot I thought would not be over the top happy with. I tried to capture the beauty of the case in my pictures but I don’t think I did a very good job!


The hands…I was 50/50 on these before getting the watch. Claude strongly suggested I stick to them and he was right. These are absolutely beautiful and go from black to purple and blue depending on the lighting.

Now, as far as things I wish I had changed design wise and various nitpicks…

1. Coarser frosting. Think Lang & Heyne. This looks good, but with their style of frosting it would be icing on a very delicious cake. Not to say I dislike the frosting as is, just that it could be even better by making it coarser.

2. No dial numerals, polished indices only. I don’t hate the two typefaces on this watch, but I do think the less typefaces used the better. This is very picky lol

3. I’m not a big fan of the stock strap. It’s not padded, but imo should have some padding, and the keeper is quite loose. Nothing wrong with it but after experiencing a terrycrafted strap, everything feels bad. It’s kind of like when you go to a very nice restaurant, order coffee…and get something very burnt :-)

Overall, I’m very happy with this watch. I love the design, engineering/complication, high quality craftsmanship and customer service. I can see myself ordering another watch from AS further down the line.

I used an iPhone for pictures with a bit of editing in Lightroom to remove noise.

I hope this lengthy review helps others make a decision. Usually I wouldn’t write something this long but I felt like since there are basically no owner reviews floating around I’d assist a little :-)

[AEC]

Wow. Everything about that watch and your fantastic photos make for a real treat for the eyes

[golfer_john]

Awesome piece! I have a custom one on order too. Probably another 2-3 months before I receive it.

[WatchEater666]

Thanks guys, it’s amazing what an iPhone can do nowadays lol. I have a real camera but don’t really use it because I find I can do the 80/20 with my phone and mobile Lightroom

Originally Posted by golfer_john

Awesome piece! I have a custom one on order too. Probably another 2-3 months before I receive it.

Awesome. What did you get?

[DJH1977]

This is a very special watch. Congratulations on your decision and valuable contribution by way of a review!

[1William]

Nice watch.

[btwistround]

whoah! one day I might be able to join the club

[bioyuki]

Congrats, amazing piece!

[FrugalGreubel]

I’m drooling over how wonderful this watch is. I really love the detailed write up. Thanks for sharing. Also your pics are amazing.

[enjoythemusic]

Major congrats! A salute to you

[adamegret]

Congrats, that’s a stunner and must’ve been so satisfying to come up with your own design.

[WatchEater666]

Originally Posted by adamegret

Congrats, that’s a stunner and must’ve been so satisfying to come up with your own design.

Yes it’s awesome seeing them come to life! Have done this with a few watchmakers now and always find the process super satisfying.