Korona K1 Prototype by Stepan Sarpaneva

by Watchismo

Helsinki watchmaker, Stepan Sarpaneva, nephew of the famed Finnish mid-century designer Timo Sarpaneva, has produced yet another stellar timepiece, the Korona K1. Following the success of his very limited and sold-out Supernova series (featured on Watchismo), Stepan is quickly forming a significant body of work.

At 44mm wide and 9.6mm tall, the nearly full-Finnish production is made entirely of stainless steel including the dial, date disc, hands, crown, case, and rotor. The grated dial design reminds me of the incredible variety of antique manhole covers found all over here in New York City.

Curtis Thomson of Tempered-Online and Horomundi further describes the Korona's features, "Powered by the Soprod A10, with the mainplate modified by Sarpaneva to enhance the larger "skeleton" date disc feature, the movement will be visible through its display back allowing us to see the gold plated steel rotor. K1 will be available, as pictured, but also with a black diamond coated case and an Imperial Blue dial. The dial is made in three parts from stainless, with these skeleton-like dials are becoming a bit of a trademark for Sarpaneva. The hands are microblasted giving them a textured surface, except for their tips, which are black polished."

Those skeleton dials are one of the most amazing features of this watch, which aren't really be appreciated by photographs. Each digit of the steel calendar disc is hand-carved, exposing the movement through the numbers. (Detail pictured at right.)

The first public appearance of a Korona K1 (K2 and K3) will be at the upcoming Baselworld watch fair in Basel Switzerland. Stepan will be exhibiting with superstar independents Vianney Halter and others. The Korona pricing is likely to start a bit above $8500.

See Watchismo for more images and info.

Thomas Heatherwick East Beach Cafe

by Leonora Oppenheim

We cannot claim to be experts on beach cafe architecture, but one look at Thomas Heatherwick's East Beach Cafe and one can't help but think that this is a woefully under-explored area of building design. Surely it's rife with exciting and innovative possibilities, but then that's the British designer's great talent, creating unexpected forms in unexpected places which, on sight, make you reevaluate all your previous preconceptions about a building, sculpture or product. The East Beach Cafe, situated in the small seaside town of Littlehampton, is another hot contender for the Brit Insurance Design Awards. From last week's post about Ma Ke's sculptural fashion to this week's sculptural architecture, the key is that form and function are blended to create something totally unforgettable.

Thomas Heatherwick, who surprisingly has not graced Cool Hunting's pages before now, is the great British design star of the last decade, pushing forward concepts of what design can be on all fronts, from handbags and shop interiors to bridges, Japanese temples and 56-meter tall sculptures. He certainly doesn't let the small detail of not being a trained architect stop him. His studio in London goes from strength to strength with each new project and now employs over 30 designers, architects and project managers.

For the East Beach Cafe, as with many iconic creative works, it was the happy union of designer and client that helped realize the project. It is often the foresight of a open-minded client that creates great opportunity and in this case it was Littlehampton resident Jane Wood. She bought the site after the old beach cafe closed down and, appalled by the proposal for a new unsightly cafe, she moved to stop it. She said of her impetuous decision, "My house looked out on to East Beach. I felt I had to save this very special place and so I did a crazy thing and bought the business."

That crazy thing turned into a golden ticket as soon as she commissioned Heatherwick Studio, knowing that only something extraordinary would be created by Thomas and his team. The risk paid off with Jane and her daughter Sophie now doing a roaring trade for queues of people who have that very British predilection of visiting the seaside in all weathers. The transformative effect of great architecture (otherwise known as the "Bilbao effect") is taking hold in Littlehampton, where the masses are making the pilgrimage to eat fish and chips in the extraordinary East Beach Cafe.

Second Place

by Brian Fichtner

A confluence of commercial fashion photography and fine art persuasions clearly informs Jody Fausett's new book, "Second Place," which is itself a subversive examination of suburban living. Set against the backdrop of shag carpeting, wood paneled walls, and drop ceilings, Fausett choreographs unsettling scenes where, for example, a young woman is doused with baby powder, a stuffed fawn lies perched on a sofa or an upturned trophy head rests on the floor of an empty room. The hostile surrealism of Lynch's "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks" readily comes to mind. (Click below images for detail.)

Published by GHava(Press), the brainchild of the Brooklyn-based artist collective known as GH avisualagency, in typical guerilla fashion the start-up press is releasing occasional titles while managing a full-time agency. (Though it aims to be fully operational in the near future.) "Second Place" is their sophomore publication.

Watch a flip through of "Second Place" on Blip. The book can be purchased online through Ghava(Press) or Amazon or in person at I Heart.

Second Place
Launch Party: 6 March 2008,
I Heart
262 Mott Street
New York, NY 10012 map
tel. +1 212 219 9265

Beautiful/Decay x Furni Magazine Rack

by Ami Kealoha

Our friends at the Montreal-based design company Furni recently collaborated with our friends at Beautiful/Decay magazine to create this hand-made magazine rack. The acrylic basket bears a scripted Beautiful/Decay logo and connects to a Russian plywood frame. The rack holds six to 10 magazines and comes in your choice of natural or chocolate brown-stained wood.

An internet exclusive, it will not be available in stores. You can purchase your own for $98 on the Furni site, or a cut-rate $97.95 over at the Beautiful/Decay Shop. Also, check out an interview with Furni founder Mike Giles about the B/D collaboration on the B/D site.

Crackery Tableware

by Doug Black

A sad fate awaits cracked china. With no real value on the secondhand market, most is relegated to the garbage. That is, unless Brazilian/Israeli designer Joana Meroz gets a hold of it. Based in the Netherlands, Meroz reclaims broken cups and dishes, which she transforms into her Crackery Tableware line for the Ornamented Life. Instead of trashing them, she chooses to "celebrate their imperfections" by glazing the crack with gold luster and adding a flower to the terminus. The finished product makes any imperfections seem almost deliberate. Tons of damaged dishes rejoice.

You can contact Joana through her website for pricing and ordering information.