Arnold & Son’s HMS1 Collection Strives for Classical Elegance


Arnold & Son HMS1 Rose Gold caseArnold & Son, the Swiss watch brand based in La Chaux-de-Fonds and named for 18th-century London watchmaker John Arnold, has released a new collection of elegantly simple watches called HMS1. The name harks back to John Arnold’s history as a supplier of marine chronometers to the British Royal Navy.

The quartet of new watches includes two in stainless steel cases, with a white or anthracite dial ($9,885 and $10,095, respectively); one in an 18k rose gold case with an anthracite dial ($15,165); and one in an 18k white gold case with a silver-colored dial ($16,640). All the cases are 40 mm in diameter, water-resistant to 30 meters, and feature curved sapphire crystals with nonreflective coating on both sides as well as sapphire exhibition casebacks.

The watches contain Arnold & Son’s in-house, hand-wound movement, Caliber A&S1001, which powers the hours, minutes and small seconds display at 6 ‘clock on the dial. The movement is only 2.7 mm thick, but incorporates two barrels providing a lengthy 80-hour power reserve, a rarity in a watch in this price segment. The two-barrel system helps to provides more constant power and more constant force, which, the company says, will result in improved timekeeping accuracy. Caliber A&S1001 has 21 jewels and oscillates at a frequency of 21,000 vph.
Arnold & Son HMS1 steel gray dial
HMS1 with steel case and anthracite dial (Ref. 1LCAP.S02A.C111S)
Arnold & Son HMS1 rose gold gray dial
HMS1 in rose gold case (Ref. 1LCAP.S04A.C110A)

Arnold & Son also takes pride in its the decorative touches applied to the movement, which include rhodium treatment (in the gold-case models) or NAC gray finishing (in the steel-case models); manually chamfered bridges with polished edges, fine circular graining and côtes de Genève, and blued screws.

The watches come with alligator leather straps (black for the steel and white-gold models, brown for the rose-gold) that feature hand-stitching. Each of the HMS1 watches is limited to 250 pieces.
Arnold & Son HMS1 steel white dial
HMS1 with steel case and white dial (Ref. 1LCAS.S01A.C111S)
Arnold & Son HMS1 white gold
HMS1 with white-gold case (Ref. 1LCAW.S03A.C111W)

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