This announcement is not of a new watch, but a new way to customise a watch, the Armin Strom way. Known for its innovative approach to watches, the team at Armin Strom launches a configurator for this Baselworld 2017.
The last time we looked at a watch from Armin Strom, were intrigued at the innovation that the team brought to improve chronometric performance with their Mirrored Forced Resonance. Inventive and interesting. This Baselworld, they did not announce a new watch, but a new way to customise your Armin Strom.
The configurator will be a unique way to customise your Armin Strom watch.
The play that Armin Strom is seeking is to tease the concept of luxury. It is no longer about price, but about exclusivity. The exclusivity that comes with the ownership of the rare and special, and the unique. The concept of luxury that is personal and tailored for each collector.
Armin Strom is offering their clients the opportunity to create their own exclusive watches, by using the Watch Configurator – the collector begins by choosing the desired movement, whether it contains a tourbillon, a five-day power reserve, or any other functionality in Armin Strom’s arsenal. Collectors can then choose colors, engraving, and even skeletonisation of the movement and/or certain components – the latter naturally being one of Armin Strom’s historical specialties. Using this virtual reality version of Armin Strom’s workshop, a fully customised watch becomes possible.
The system is available online and additionally allows the user to choose the case material, the style and color of the dial and hands, the clasp, and details right down to the color of the stitching on the chosen strap. All composition options are visible at a glance and so is the price as changes are configured: the Watch Configurator calculates as one goes along with the process. And Armin Strom promises that the watches purchased through the Watch Configurator system are no more expensive than serial models made by Armin Strom.
The watch can then be picked up at any nearby authorized Armin Strom retailer or even at the Armin Strom factory in Switzerland – and a tour of the factory is included in the price.
Armin Strom is quick to point out that while the online Watch Configurator system offers new perspectives for the collector, it does not replace or take away from the authorized retailer, who remains in place to offer advice and assistance if needed.
“My technical team and I are proud to have been able to develop an innovative system like the Watch Configurator based on the exceptional depth of manufacturing that Armin Strom possesses. This is a new way to go with the times that excitingly enables the collector’s deepest wishes for a unique timepiece to be fulfilled with a true haute horlogerie timepiece,” says Claude Greisler, director of Armin Strom.
“I’m very happy to be able to integrate our retail partners in such a groundbreaking project as this, one that offers truly new perspectives in the luxury world. It emphasizes the fact that we are all partners,” remarks Serge Michel, owner of Armin Strom.
We look forward to seeing and playing with the Configurator when we get our hands-on session at Baselworld, and will report back.
