BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Only Watch is the bi-annual charity auction for funding research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Armin Strom is a Swiss luxury watchmaker known for its gorgeous complex watches. The Gravity Equal Force from the brand is, apparently, the world’s first wristwatch to have a constant force transmission and automatic winding.
Armin Strom’s watches are exceptional, but they’re really appealing to horological nerds who want something technically excellent but maybe don’t have the budget for a Patek Philippe for example. The calibre ASB19 features a micro-rotor on the dial side and the mainspring barrel on display below that. The transmission ensures there’s an equal amount of power going to the balance wheel (which is on the back) whether the barrel is fully wound or nearly empty. It’s quite similar to the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 31 I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, although the implementation is different.
For Only Watch, the watch has a green dial with a red logo on it and blue stitching on the strap. The expectation is that this will sell for between 25,000 and 35,000 CHF, which is around the retail price of a regular one.
