Armin Strom Moves the Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist 1665 to Yellow Gold and Black Lacquer

The Zeitgeist 1665 was Armin Strom’s idea of what the Mirrored Force Resonance might have looked like if someone had built it in the 17th century. At first, it was rendered with a white dial over rose gold-coloured bridges. This new Zeitgeist 1665 3N edition keeps the same concept and changes the colours, with yellow gold bridges and a black lacquer chapter ring. For anyone new to the watch, it has two balance wheels that are linked so they settle into the same rhythm, an effect called resonance that Christiaan Huygens first saw between two pendulum clocks in 1665.

The steel case is 43mm wide and 11.55mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 49.6mm. That is large, but there is a lot going on with this watch. The flanks are brushed vertically and the top surfaces are polished, and the recognizable small lip at the bottom of the case is still there. There is sapphire crystal front and back, both anti-reflective, and water resistance is 30 meters.

There is no dial in the usual sense. A polished black lacquer chapter ring sits over the movement and shows the hours, the off-centre minutes and the two seconds tracks, indicated by blued steel hands that Armin Strom makes themselves. Everything around it is movement: a matte mainplate and bridges in 3N yellow gold, bevelled and polished edges, and black-polished screws. The left side is skeletonised, so you can watch both balances and the clutch between them. The black ring gives the layout a clean edge, and the yellow gold looks warmer than the rose gold did.

The calibre ARF21-ZG is made in-house and manual-wind, running at 3.5Hz (25,200 vph) with 80 hours of reserve from two barrels. It has 39 jewels and 260 components. A pusher at 10 o’clock is a flyback that resets both seconds hands together. The strap is grey Alcantara with grey stitching and a steel pin buckle.

The Armin Strom Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist 1665 3N (ref. ST26-ZG.90) is limited to 25 pieces and priced at CHF 82,000. See more on the Armin Strom website.