Horological Meandering

Formula 1 Racing and Armin Strom Watches

 

It's a dreamy morning in a Barcelona suburb.

Why am I being given this little container with earplugs?

I have never seen this watch before.

Well it is training day at the Circuit de Catalunya and Armin Strom watches will be presenting their new Armin Racing Regulator to the drivers of the Marussia Virgin Formula 1 team, Jérôme D'Ambrosio and Timo Glock.

First let's take a look around and get to know the Marussia Virgin team.  From the Marussia Virgin suite we get our first glimpse of the car with Jérôme D'Ambrosio at the wheel flashing by on the track.

This is a training day so the car will be in and out of the pits very often.  Let's go and see.
The paddocks, lots of trucks from all those also ran teams such as Red Bull or (what's their name again?) Ferrari.  We head down the line to the very last team, Marussia Virgin Racing.

In the pits we get down to work immediately.  The handling and engine engineers are in constant contact with the vehicle.

As we learn, running a Formula 1 car is closely related to heat management.  Getting rid of the kilowatts of losses of the motor and the brakes.  Making sure that the tires are at the perfect temperature for the best adhesion.  Here we see the tires being conditioned.  Each cart has one set of tires and a controller so that each individual tire is warmed to the temperature it must have.

Some impressions from the box.

Back at the track.

Back in the Marussia Virgin suite let's take a closer look at the watches. Note that the module bridges of the Regulator and the movement bridges of the One Week are made of material from one of last years Marussia Virgin F1 cars.  One of the radiators was melted down and vacuum cast to make high quality aluminium raw material for these parts. You get F1 speed on your arm.

The Armin Regulator, Limited Racing Edition.

The Armin One Week, Limited Racing Edition.  A manufacture movement made in the Armin Strom factory in Biel.  click here to see my previous reports

Graeme Lowdon the President of the Marussia Virgin team, gives us some orientation about the improvements in this years vehicles and the team goals for this year.  This is team Marussia Virgin's second year in the Formula 1 and they expect to make big steps forward.

Jérôme D'Ambrosio at the wheel leaving the box.

Training the pit stop.

The car is back on the track.

In the box the tires are warm and ready to go.

What!?! so expensive and no reverse gear?

The wheels are off, Jérôme waiting to get back on the track again.

Unpacking the tires and off they go.

Gathering important data from the tires that just came off, pressure and temperature are measured on each.

It is now 17:00, the end of the day on the track. Jérôme's day is finished, but now the engineers can't wait to get the car back in their hands.

The Marussia Virgin drivers Jérôme D'Ambrosio and Timo Glock with the MVR-02.

We come to the highlight of the day; Jérôme and Timo are presented their Armin Racing watches.  Here Timo with Serge Michel CEO of Armin Strom.

Jérôme D'Ambrosio with Erik Meijer CEO Armin Strom (UK).

A last little treat seen during the day; a Armin One Week Water.  A hand decorated and engraved manufacture movement designed by Claude Greisler of Armin Strom.  This is, IMHO, one of the very rare successful open dial designs.  Note the unusual inverted movement design with the ratchet wheels on the dial side of the movement.

I would like to thank Armin Strom for the invitation to this event at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona and hope you have enjoyed it as I did.
And it is true; the earplugs were a very necessary ingredient to get through the day.
Don

This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2011-02-19 17:05:41 This message has been edited by AndrewD on 2011-02-23 15:36:51

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