Introducing Meet Armin Strom’s New Flagship Model, The Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59

Establishing a legitimate presence as a pioneering independent watchmaking brand isn’t easy, and usually requires a good deal of engineering advancement, design quirkiness - but in most cases, both. While a brand like H. Moser & Cie. is an example of the latter, Armin Strom has usually focused on the former, with their bread and butter being harnessing the mysterious dark art of resonance. Fine, this rarely-attempted “complication” isn’t that difficult to grasp, but of all the brands that have dabbled with it, Armin Strom has democratised it most successfully.

Their latest and greatest, the Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59, takes on an even greater level of complication, but adds a flexy facet to it that’s mechanically intriguing enough to make it much more than a gimmick.

Let’s get straight into what’s on offer here - the Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59 is the spiritual follow-up to Armin Strom’s Masterpiece 2, improving upon the idea significantly when it comes to physical proportions. The case is now just 42mm in diameter and 11.7mm tall, as opposed to the 47mm x 16mm behemoth that preceded it.

Most impressively, the 12:59 also adds another few degrees of complexity, with more hammers and gongs, and a selector that allows you to choose between chiming the current time or playing the lengthiest possible sequence to show off the chimes as much as possible - hence, 12:59.

This new striking set-up sits at the very top of the open dial, with the gongs running around the periphery, and the four hammers nestling above the tri-Armin Strom-branded governor. With this gong and hammer set-up, the Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59 is able to chime the Westminster Quarters, named for the melody written in 1793 for the University Church of Cambridge, and eventually adopted by Big Ben in 1851, gaining its name.

While not common, Westminster-chiming watches aren’t impossible to find, but the column wheel-operated system that allows you to switch between the two chiming modes? That’s possibly one of the nerdiest party tricks I’ve seen on any watch, and a bit of a godsend for any of you short-form content makers.

There is, of course, the matter of resonance as well, synchronising two essentially complete movements (barrel, wheel train, and escapement) with a singular resonance clutch. This Armin Strom patent anchors at the terminals of each of the two hairsprings, acting as a transmitter of minuscule vibrations between the escapements, causing them to synchronise their beats.

A set of skeletonised hands bisect the dial horizontally, further emphasising the symmetrical layout, and with the complete lack of a dial, there is nowhere to hide any unfinished components. Luckily, Armin Strom accounted for this, and is happy to report that each component is hand-finished. Taking a closer look at all that chamfering, sharp angles of both the interior and exterior variety - I’m inclined to believe them.

Any commotion that you miss on the dial will be visible via the caseback, with plenty of skeletonisation making light work of letting you see what’s going on. The stacks of racks, pinions, and wheels here should give a good indication of just how complex a watch like this is, as should the jewel count, which sits at 74. Listing off the rest of the specs, you can expect a 3.5 Hz beat rate and a 40-hour power reserve, with the whole package mounted on an anthracite alligator strap with a case-matching titanium pin buckle.

Getting to see this watch in action, chiming away while the clutch spring flexes back and forth - there’s an impressive degree of animation to the dial, especially considering the level of complication. As the Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59 is now the flagship of the Armin Strom collection, the other thing that is impressive is the level of finishing. Considering the aesthetic choices, it’s not as immediately obvious just how beautifully executed the decoration really is.

It reminds me of some of Greubel Forsey pieces, and though it might sound silly to say, some of the surfaces are just so perfect - like the frosted brass plate or mirror-polished hammers - my brain doesn’t register that they’re meticulously finished by hand at first. Just to make it clear, this is a good thing, at least if your brain processes watches the way mine does.

Zooming out a little, what I sometimes struggle with when it comes to Armin Strom is the design of the cases, especially when it comes to that protruding chin at 6 o’clock. Thankfully, this is something that AS has continuously toned down over the last few iterations, and both it and the repeater slide are integrated neatly. Titanium is also an excellent choice here, both for its excellent acoustic properties but also for further reducing the on-wrist bulk. As we talked about movement decoration already, I also should mention that the case is impressively finished too, which I can’t say for all titanium watches.

This watch would’ve likely impressed me whether it had its 12:59 chiming selector or not. But just for the fact that Armin Strom decided to complicate the development even further for what is essentially a party trick, I have to give respect where it’s due.

Brand: Armin Strom
Model: Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59 First Edition
Reference Number: M26-RMR.5N
Diameter: 42mm
Thickness: 11.7mm
Lug-to-Lug: 48mm
Case Material: Titanium
Dial Colour: Anthracite, brass coloured movement
Indices: None
Crystal: AR-coated sapphire front, sapphire back
Lume: No
Water Resistance: 50 metres
Strap/Bracelet: Matte grey alligator strap, dark grey stitching, titanium pin buckle

Calibre: ARR25
Functions: Hours, minutes, Westminster chime, on-demand 12:59 striking, resonance clutch
Power Reserve: 40 hours
Winding: Manual
Frequency: 3.5 Hz
Jewels: 74
Chronometer Certified: No

Price: CHF 390,000
Availability: TBC 2026
Limited Edition: 25 pieces

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