Armin Strom One Week Skeleton Rose Gold

Jason Lee

Armin Strom grew out of a Burgdorf, Switzerland workshop founded in 1967 by the namesake watchmaker, a specialist in hand‑skeletonising and engraving. The modern chapter began in 2009, when Serge Michel and Claude Greisler established an integrated manufacture in Biel/Bienne to develop movements and make plates and bridges in‑house. Production has stayed deliberately small—low hundreds of watches a year with a team of a few dozen—and the company is unusually vocal about assembling each movement twice (first for adjustment, then again after decoration), which neatly signals its process‑driven culture. The focus has remained consistent ever since: show the mechanics without compromising the watchmaking.

That background makes the Armin Strom One Week a logical through‑line for the brand. The first in‑house calibre set the seven‑day template, and the 2023 reboot refined the architecture while keeping the choreography of twin barrels and dial‑side spectacle. The new One Week Skeleton Rose Gold, unveiled at Dubai Watch Week 2025, fits squarely into that continuum. It is presented as “a deeper cut” into the movement with full skeletonisation—less a trend play than a nod to the company’s original specialism under Mr Armin Strom. It reads as an incremental but meaningful step in a collection that has always been about making the power reserve and energy path legible at a glance.

The case

The case brings a first for the latest One Week architecture: solid 18K rose gold. The case is 41mm in diameter, 10.6mm in thickness and 44.35mm lug‑to‑lug, with short, downturned lugs and a modest bezel that leaves visual space for the movement. The overall palette is restrained—warm case metal against black accents—so the eye goes straight to the calibre rather than to dial furniture. Sapphire front and back with anti‑reflective treatment reinforces that intent, and the 100m water‑resistance rating is a practical touch rarely seen on manually‑wound, openworked pieces from high-end independents.

The dial

On the dial side, the display is pared back to what matters. A slim black minute track frames the action, a skeletonised small‑seconds at 9 o’clock adds motion, and the rest is engineered theatre. Two large ratchet wheels sit high under the crystal and dominate the upper half of the watch; they are responsible for winding the twin barrels in series and have become one of Armin Strom’s most recognisable signatures. Hours and minutes are central, with faceted, rose‑gold coloured hands and applied indexes filled with Super‑LumiNova to keep basic legibility intact.

The movement

Beating inside is the in‑house ARM21‑S, a skeletonised reinterpretation of the original ARM09. It is manual‑winding, runs at 3.5 Hz, and stores a full seven days of autonomy across the two mainspring barrels. The barrels are linked in series to deliver steadier torque. A highlight here is the conical power‑reserve transmission, a mechanism inspired by pocket‑watch engineering. In practical terms, it gives you a three‑dimensional power‑reserve indicator that reads intuitively as the mainsprings wind down, and it does so without resorting to a traditional sector needle at the periphery.

Bridges and plates are cut back aggressively to create depth and a sense of negative space, yet the result remains structured thanks to the finger‑bridge layout. Those finger bridges are coated in a rose‑gold tone to echo the case, which unifies the look and prevents the movement from reading as a patchwork of colours. Finishing is traditional and visible: hand‑polished bevels along every edge, striping, circular graining and cleanly chamfered sinks. The brand’s “assembled twice” practice is relevant here—first to tune and check tolerances, then again after decoration—because open architecture leaves nowhere to hide.

The strap

A black textile strap, secured by an 18K rose‑gold pin buckle, keeps the mood contemporary. Paired with the 100m water resistance rating, it suggests a watch that can be worn beyond the safe confines of a dress cuff.

The verdict

From a collector’s perspective, the One Week Skeleton Rose Gold is the kind of release that rewards familiarity with the brand. It isn’t about debuting a new escapement or a left‑field complication. Instead, it advances a core platform that already carries Armin Strom’s hallmarks: the twin‑barrel display, the clear articulation of energy storage, and the decision to make function part of the form.

Taken together, the One Week Skeleton Rose Gold is a clear statement of priorities. It makes the movement the protagonist, treats skeletonisation as craft rather than gimmick, and packages the whole idea in a wearable format with thoughtful practicality. For a brand that has long argued that horology should be explained in plain sight, this is a coherent, quietly confident chapter—one that extends the One Week story without losing sight of why it mattered in the first place.