Stepan Sarpaneva's coolness factor continues to ascend. Probably the only watchmaker I know to attend Baselworld in jeans and t-shirt, he’s always deflected the stuffy purists with a bulletproof CV: complications watchmaker at Parmigiani, Vianney Halter and Christophe Claret…? Getouttahere!
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It’s no wonder he’s made it alone since 2004, with an eponymous brand of watches defined by his homeland’s brutal winters and a lifelong passion for heavy metal and motorbikes. (I told you he was cool!) As with its motorsport champions, Finland turns out a disproportionately high number of talented watchmakers – 38 per year to be precise – thanks to the Kelloseppä Koulu watchmaking school, but they all tend to migrate to repair shops or Swiss brands – even Kari Voutilainen, who defected years ago. Stepan therefore enjoys the rare privilege of being the only mechanical watch brand in Finland. As Stepan puts it himself: “I am on my own. This is the Finnish way; the melancholy; the loneliness…”
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It was to Stepan’s workshop in Nokia’s old cable factory in Helsinki – now an über-hip commune of cool arty types – that a select bunch of journalists and friends gravitated in late January. Gesturing across the vast industrial plot, he declares, “One day, all this will be mine!” before we board a rickety elevator and creep down a squeaky-clean corridor. Through an anonymous door, we find Stepan’s prodigal recruits from Kelloseppä, Hanna and Jarmo, beavering away on ranks of Korona watches – an ultra-cool feat of skeletonization first leaked on these pages.
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The eagle-eyed were pleased to spot several clues to Stepan’s pedigree dotted around the workshop: besides the obligatory framed portrait of Breguet, a littala vase (Stepan’s uncle Timo Sarpaneva designed the iconic “i” logo in 1956), a poster of his mother modeling latticework jewelery by his designer father Pentti, a hand sculpture by Pentti holding Stepan’s original Harley Davidson kick-start-pinion pocket watch… and, er, a stack of Monster Magnet CDs.
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It was then to the ferry terminal, where we were conveyed to Helsinki’s beautiful UNESCO world heritage site, the Sea Fortress. Deep within the metre-thick bunker walls, by the flickering light of rusty candelabra, the purpose of our visit was finally unveiled: the Black Moon. It's a moonphase Korona K3, but, in a world-first, shows the New Moon rather than the Full Moon. It’s named after the opposite astrological event to a Blue Moon: when two New Moons occur within a single lunar cycle. What's more, Stepan has teamed up with a local illustrator and an aspiring poet to spin a Gothic fairytale around the whole thing, based on the legend of Lilith, the temptress demon who preys on unwitting men by night, as an owl. I know what you’re thinking, but, it all holds together well! Unfortunately you’ll have to buy the watch (€12,500) to see for yourself as the book of eight illustrations and the poem will only accompany the 20 editions.
Ultimately, this Black Moon triptych answers a singular brief posed to his artistic collaborators by Stepan from the very start: to evoke the unique melancholy of Finland's relentless winter: “While I make the watches, you make the story!” It’s all terribly brooding and morbid, but it’s done in a terribly hip, black turtleneck type of way. Another slice of predictable cool from the scruffy Finn.
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