Good to know, I have had our Aerons repaired many times so I probably knew that but sometimes the ID brain’s instinct to fix myself overwhelms the rational.
I can CFM the original had the spacers as part of the same cast aluminum as the arm. It’s like that on my Soft Pad Group desk chair which is from the 80’s.
I checked our library of HM books, its interesting, most of the original product shots have the connectors cast in the aluminum (like Travis’s), but there are a few images of our particular chair that has the plastic spacer, some in a group shot with the other arms in the same photo. 80s products are still decades into the lifespan, when they cost reduced everything to death. I’ll ask next time I am there.
Oh, also, BTW I just found out that in the lounge chairs, they just returned to the original 4 star base. I believe it was originally designed as 4 star, at some point (I have an 80’s HM catalog) it was offered as both 4 or 5 depending on the model, then recently was only in 5 star. Now back to 5. I believe the desk chairs are still only 5 star though originally 4 star. Think it’s a law of some sort to prevent tipping. Not sure when that came into effect.
Yep, when they launched the collection last year they went through all the classic pieces and looked at what has been cost reduced or altered since launch and undid a lot of changes that were made. They had no real valid reason why they switched the non-task chairs to 5 leg bases, and they still make the 4 leg casting for the ottoman so they reverted back to the correct base. Things like the soft pad chairs had become overly padded, minor details that no one really thought would change things but over 50 years of them they add up.