Earlier this year Armin Strom’s Orbit First Edition made us look at bezels differently, with an on-demand pointer date function displayed on the bezel rather than around the periphery of the dial.

This central date that driven by a column-wheel that can be activated and deactivated with the push of a button.

Now, the new Orbit Manufacture Edition follows on from the limited edition Orbit First Edition, with the dark grey of the original replaced by a new black offset dial and silvery rhodium-coated bridges.

The dial indicates the hours and minutes as well as the seconds on a separate counter. The numerals, hour markers and hour and minute hands are filled with off-white Super-LumiNova®. The steel hands are manufactured by Armin Strom and, like all the visible parts of the movement, are hand finished in-house.

The date hand has two modes, stationary and active, and is basically ‘on demand’. When disengaged (or ‘off’), the hand returns to a ‘neutral’ state, pointing at the red “DATE” at 12 o’clock on the engraved ceramic fixed bezel. When activated by the pusher on the left side of the case, the central date hand is ‘engaged’ and jumps to the current date.

When in this active mode, the date automatically advances a day at midnight. With another push of the button, the hand returns to its stationary position, with a mechanical memory allowing it to jump back to the correct date when required by the wearer.

The hand never points to the current date except when the complication is disengaged, meaning there can never be any uncertainty as to whether it’s active or not. A retrograde mechanism allows the date hand to jump back from 31 to 1. The date can be set using a corrector button on the 8 o’clock or advanced manually via the crown..

If they so choose, the wearer can leave the date function active, whereupon it will operate like a regular pointer date, changing over at midnight.

The 43.4mm case and bracelet are in stainless steel, with both polished and satin-brushed surfaces. As was the case for the launch model, the bezel on this Manufacture Edition is ceramic.

Inside is the automatic Armin Strom Calibre ASS20, which beats at 25,200 VPH and has a power reserve of 72 hours. some skeletonisation, along with the three horizontal bridges, It features hand-finishing, polished and chamfered edges, polished chatons, and perlage.

Whilst the Manufacture Edition is not a limited edition, it will be produced in limited quantities, with an RRP of CHF 29,500.

[Photo credit: Armin Strom]

Categories: Armin Strom, Watch Profile, watches