Horological Meandering

big daddy
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SARPANEVA Watches--My View and Opinion !!!!!

During the summer of 2009, my wife, my daughter of 16 years, and myself spent a 28 day vacation in Northern Europe.  While there, we visited friends, trolled through numerous watch retailers, visited a fellow watch aficianado that regularly posts on this forum having a nice visit and dinner with his family, and we were graciously invited by Stepan Sarapaneva to visit his atelier while in Helsinki. 

First of all, let me tell you how nice of a person Stepan is.  He picked all three of us up, took us to his atelier, and proceeded to entertain all my questions for 3 hours....all on a Sunday morning!  He really is a very nice person.

Now on to our visit.  I will include some photographs we took while we were with Stepan but I will not put any closeups of his current offerings on for those photographs are on this site and others that are much better than I ever could take so you might want to look at the postings by Don Courson, MTF, Kong, Monochrome, and www.sarapanevawatches.com to look at these exquisite watches. 

Let me regress somewhat and remind each of you that Stepan finished Kelloseppakoulu or the Finnish School of Watchmaking and WOSTEP and worked within such revered houses as Piaget, Parmigiani, Vianney Halter, Christophe Claret including the SAV or complication workshop at Piaget.  He designed and built his first watch, the ubiquitous, Time Tramp, revealing it in 1999 and it is displayed prominently in his shop.  His atelier was established in Helsinki in 2003 and now includes 3 other watchmakers who work with Stepan.  Many of you, as I was, were taken aback with his first designs.  On further study, I found out his uncle and father were famous "artists" from other venues and it is obvious this talent for design lies within Stepan.  Finland and it's culture are within his ideas and designs as many who have visited Finland and it's art designs will most certainly agree with me on. I am just pleased he is designing watches!

The caliber of all of his designs has been the Soprod Caliber A10, 11 Lignes, 28,800 vibrations per hour, 25 jewels, 42 hour power reserve.  This is a rugged caliber Stepan uses and for those of you not familiar with SOPROD, it's movements have been used by Richard Mille, Hautlense, and Panerai.  Then Sarapaneva modifies and fits the caliber with new parts, all of which are manufactured in Finland.  The entire movement is refinished with the mainplate gilded after refinishing.  You can view both sides of the movement through the front and rear of the skeletonized watches and they are well finished. Using this movement assures that years from now spare parts will be available.

Why would one buy a Sarpaneva watch?  Because it is the only Finnish watchmaker?  The fine movement?  For me it is the boldness of his designs, the contrast of colors, and the comfort of wearing the watch.  I did try on the 42mm Korona RG and WG, expecting a heavy and not real comfortable watch.  I was surprised as it was extremely comfortable on my 7 inch or almost 180mm wrist.  It was not heavy, particularly for a gold watch--maybe the fully scalloped exterior of the case, the skeletonized dials on both sides, and the very modest height of the watch itself contributed to this. The case lugs also contribute to it's comfort.  I will confess, when the Korona K3 and K3 Black Moon were introduced I was smitten as the "finnish moon" was a defining design for Stepan (for those of you who do not like the "finnish moon" there are a very few Korona K2's left of the 25 originals).  His watches are not limited editions but limited runs and to date the most of any design he has produced is 50!  He also has designed two prototypes that I saw that he may introduce.  I did promise not to describe or photograph then and I will honor that promise. In my opinion, when the "finnish moon" was added to the K3, I thought the watch needed more color to contrast with the melancoly exhibited by the watches.  Then he introduced the RG (red gold) and WG (white gold)....that was it!  I had to visit and try one on!

I will go on record in telling all of you the watches are stunning and look better in person than a photograph could ever record them.  Read in earlier posts about the making of the 3 "finnish moons" on each Korona K3...two on the front and one on the rotor.  That is a difficult and time consuming task.  Then take a look at the dials....270 hand cuts and hand finishes , inside and out, on each dial.  Can you imagine the talent, training, and focus that would take without making an error?  I looked at these skeletonized dials, the "finnish moons", the rotor, and the movement through a loupe and I can tell you the finish was excellent--better than I would have thought possible.

I also asked Stepon if his watches could be customized for a customer, say a different color dial or "finnish moon", a different plating, and even engraving for those few who might give it as a gift.  Stepon assured me if it was possible he could do it.  Bespoke watch anyone?  

So is it the country of origin, the movement, the finish, the design, the ability to customize, or the exclusivity that would attract you?  For me, all of them, but particularly design.  I love the Korona RG.  But let me assure you that he has the Korona K2, K3, K3 Black Moon, RG, and WG available.  Only the K1 is sold out.  All the watches are 44mm in diameter except the RG and WG which are 42mm.  The RG and WG have the exterior of the case completely scalloped from front to back, which I also think makes the watch distinctive.

Let me also say in addition to the talents I have noted above, Stepon, has a strong entrepenurial spirit...he really wants to build a strong, Finnish atelier and he was very proud to have brought on a third watchmaker to work with him.

So, where did I put that checkbook?  Cheers, as gmhutton would say! (Don't know why Stepan's photo appeared twice....maybe he is twice as handsome as I?).