Horological Meandering

In addition to Gaz's wonderful posting on his new acquisition (congrats), here are some shots I was priviledged to take of the prototype Korona K2.

















































Thanks for looking!

The amount of detail and the level of finishing of the watch are simply spectacular! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Thanks for the pics.

There are 2 different arrow-heads ... one set was black-polished and the other not.

Again, aesthetically pleasing. Wonder what was done for the movement.

Kong

But no... it was only 1 piece. You will see this effect at certain angles the arrow heads (which I believe are uncoated or having a different coating on this prototype and maybe lumed for production).

Or specular polishing that Stepan finishes by hand on the hands.  From certain angles, the arrow heads look black, while at others it looks white.  As mentioned, some orders have asked that luminova be added to the very tip of the arrow head.  This was offered to me as an option by Stepan, which I rejected.  I knew how much work and effort Stepan needs to perform in order to achieve a perfectly flat surface in order to achieve the black polishing.  It didn't make sense for me, that after all that effort, luminova was added to that perfect surface.  It is completely unnecessary and contradicts the very theme that Stepan sought to create. 

However, Stepan accomodated these orders as he felt that it was a reasonable request.

Cheers
Gaz

 

I really have to see it in the flesh..
This watch amazes me, but something in the design of the dial disturbs me, so I really have to check in vivo...
Best.
Nicolas

When I first saw a Sarpaneva, I immediately felt a sense of familiarity - the feeling was similar to the stirring I felt when I saw some of HR Giger's works (which I love). Am not sure if this 'disturbance' you feel is similar.

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KT: thanks for the photos: as usual very "moody"

I guess we must have seen this piece separately and almost contemporaneously.

Since my last posting "Man or Machine" click here    I am still puzzled by the underlying ethos of Sarpaneva watches. Are they timekeepers or art?

Early work was more industrial and exploration of how and what to do with materials and processes e.g. "I want to make a watch out of the kickstart pinion of my Harley Davidson bike" or "Let's use martensitic steels with at least 12 % Cr and low Ni content (Stavax ESR) instead of 316L steel".

There was some hint of Art to come. Check out the names of the watch models so far:

Loiste=shine

Supernova=stellar explosion

Korona='crown' or plasma atmosphere of a star/Sun

Have we got some astronomical influence from the far Northern realm of the midnight sun?

Of course, I am now speculating the next model is the Aurora

 

The topics for future consideration will need to be:

* What does Sarpaneva Watches stand for?

* Watchmaking Art or Art of Watchmaking?

* Form or Function?

* Man or Machine?

 

Regards,

MTF

 

 

This message has been edited by MTF on 2008-06-12 14:47:48

I regard his watches as raw and yet full of details, simple and yet complex, silent and yet breath-taking.

I don't call it art.  Neither would I call it machine.  They are too profound to me.

I like Korona, be it K1, K2 or K3, it is an extraordinary  time piece created by an ordinary man.

Are we putting too much pressure on this man?

Regards

Ling

 

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You captured really well the sides of the bazel to show off the polished finish compared to the rest of the case.

Great stuff.

Gaz