Cool Hunting

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.