"As far as my friends are concerned, I am doing really useless stuff. And who can blame them? Why would I do this stupid thing?" Stepan Sarpaneva talks irreverently about his watchmaking, but for the past two decades he has dedicated himself to creating not just superlative watches but ones that have his distinct imprint. The independent watchmaker from Helsinki, Finland, stepped into the industry in 1994, and after working in Switzerland for watchmakers like Parmigiani and Piaget, returned to his hometown in 2003 to establish his eponymous brand. Since then, Stepan has immersed himself completely in watchmaking at his atelier (which he established by selling his vintage Harley-Davidson), far from traditional horological hubs.
Stepan’s signature is making uber-cool, neo-gothic watches depicting the moon, so much so that over the years, the motif has become something of a characteristic. His love for the moon fuelled not just his designs, but also his very own in-house movement, the Moonment, which he unveiled in 2018 . The Moonment can show moonphases precisely for the next 14000 years, and the moon’s cycle can be traced to either the Northern or the Southern hemispheres. The movement was first encased in Sarpaneva Lunations, offering about 57 hours of reserve.
Two of Sarpaneva’s notable collections include Stardust and Stardust Nostromo, distinctive timepieces that mark Stepan’s pursuit of the unknown, called sisu in Finland. This 42mm timepieces feature Sarpaneva’s signature Korona case with scalloped edges, made with Finnish-forged stainless steel, polished and brushed alternatively. On the Sarpaneva Stardust, the dial has seven different hand-finished parts depicting the night sky. The case comes flanked with a matte black alligator strap. The Sarpaneva Stardust Nostromo has Tritec luminescence applied on the hands and numerals that glows mesmerisingly in the dark. Both watches had a small seconds sector, and were powered by the modified Chronode P1003 Calibre.
The play of luminescence can also be seen in Sarpaneva’s collaboration pieces with Swedish-Finnish comic illustrator Tove Jansson, creator of Moomins, called the Sarpaneva x Moomin Limited Editions. At first these timepieces were a part of S.U.F Helsinki before being a part of the Sarpaneva family. The main character of these watches is a young boy of the Moomin clan, named Moomintroll. One of the watches in the collection is Sarpaneva x Moomin L.E., a 42mm watch is crafted in Outokumpu steel. The dial is made in steel in three pieces to add depth. On the front, Moomintroll is seen resting with his background decorated with different colours of Super-LumiNova, which glows in the dark giving a fun effect and intriguing effect to the timepiece. Soprod A10 automatic movement drives the watch.
Another remarkable collaboration was with MB&F in 2018 – the MoonMachine 2 in 2018, based on HM8. This Horological Machine in the automotive-themed case featured Sarpaneva’s moon in gold. Its complex design features battle axe rotor and heads-up time display in HM5. This complex watch had three versions - titanium watch with light blue sky and white gold moon, the second made in blackened titanium featuring white gold moon over a dark blue sky, and third in red gold and titanium with red gold moon over anthracite sky.
A year after his return to Helsinki, he established a sister brand, SarpanevaUhrenFabrik or S.U.F Helsinki, which was positioned as being more accessible to customers. Stepan says Sarpaneva was not created for everyone – it is also his credo, ‘#notforeveryone’ - but rather for those who understand his watches and had a passion for theme. Sarpaneva watches are produced in much smaller numbers – 80 -100 - than S.U.F Helsinki. Recently to celebrate its 20 years, the brand unveiled S.U.F Helsinki x Sarpaneva 1980 Kaos, in three versions with different dial colours, and for the first time featuring moonface in S.U.F watch, also in different colours.
To understand more about his journey and watches, WatchTime India spoke to Stepan Sarpaneva.
WatchTime India: What prompted you to start your own brand?
Stepan Sarpaneva: In Switzerland, I worked for Piaget, Parmigiani, Vianney Halter, and Christophe Claret, and during those times, I started making new watches as well as restoring old ones. I saw so many watches - I thought about how I would do my own watch. And so accidentally, I made a watch and someone saw it and he wanted to have a similar kind of watch. Then another person saw it. So, in the end it was like the demand of the customers. My friends wanted to have the watch that I had been making, so that was the start.
WTI: How did you get the idea of creating a face on the moon?
SS: I had made the Korona series and it has the opening and moonphase on it - it was just a year old. But when I was looking at the watch, I felt it didn't work because its opening was so big, and if you have just something shiny there, it doesn't make sense. So I took the old books and had a look at how watches were made in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. There you could easily see that the moon always had a face. So I wanted to have my own version, but in a modern way. We made it and in the end it came out the way it is. It is made by tools and is hand-finished. You could see if it is smiling or angry.
WTI: What all is created in-house and what all done with third parties?
SS: We are using two existing movements. We use Soprod and Chronode. Soprode is super flat and allows to make the moonphase function directly on it. It is wise to use something that is already existing because then you get at least the spare parts and it can be serviced somewhere also, not only in our workshop. And it is much cheaper to create a product using something existing.
Then we have Chronode and we use it because its mainplate has a bigger diameter than many movements in the market, so it makes it possible to create a maximum sized small seconds function, which is aesthetically perfect. Now we are building other complications on it. We don't use modules from those built directly into the movements to keep the watch as flat as possible.
We have our own in-house movement, Lunations models’ Moonment®, which is the second most accurate moonphase in the world. The idea was to have the moonphase function in the most visible way that I had always dreamed. We have to first design the moonphase function and then we have to design the movement to make it turn. The parts for it are made in Switzerland, but the finishes and the assembling is all done in-house.
WTI: How did the idea for SUF Helsinki come about?
SS: The SUF Helsinki started at the same time. For my first Sarpaneva watches, I mostly made the cases myself and there was so much work on each watch that it did not really make sense to try to make in bulk. I noticed that there was demand in the market for certain price range of watches. So I started to make classical looking watches that were not difficult to make. Modern, simple watches.
WTI: How do you define the Sarpaneva consumer?
SS: It's the question everybody asks and I never have the answer. My price point is still very decent, very low. It's already Euro 3000 or something like that for the series of watches that we make. So you don't have to be very rich or anything, but you need to have some passion, to understand that independent watchmaking is a totally different story than any bigger production numbers of big brands.
WTI: You work in Finland and like to stay away from everything happening ‘outside’. How do you connect with customers?
SS: We work mostly through social media. So we have the brand on the main channels like Facebook. There are hundreds of pictures of my watches that are visible to everyone, so it makes it easier for them to understand what I do. And if you follow, you will start to understand what’s coming.
WTI: What are the challenges of being an independent watchmaker today?
SS: You can’t really make many mistakes. If you launch a new model and you think it's something that could please many, it's never easy. When you work in this industry and you need something from special companies, and your orders are in small quantities, that means you're always the last to get something and that means delivery times are much longer. It's a lot of work to survive actually.
WTI: It’s been 20 years since you established the brand. How do you think the brand has evolved?
SS: I do my work, I have fun. I learn everyday. Watchmaking is always a learning process and you have to be hungry to learn more. So for me it is more than work, it's a lifestyle. Yes, I make more watches now than when I was young, but if my designs are better than what they were – that’s for you to judge.
WTI: How do you see the Indian market for Sarpaneva watches?
SS: There have always been Indian customers, and I remember from the beginning, 20 years ago, there were already customers in India. If I deliver a watch directly to a customer in India, the taxes are super high - I don't understand how to get it through customs. Maybe in the future there could be a solution. So typically it's the only reason why it is complicated.
WTI: Your fondest memory while creating a watch?
SS: I think it is the moon face. Moon comes from my past, my pre-youth, when I was watching TV. In children’s programs or cartoons, there'd always been a moon. I can't sleep well when it is the full moon. So moon as an element is my best friend and my worst enemy. When I created the face for the moon of my watch, I couldn't do anything else. It has to be the moon. Moon is my life now.
Images: Courtesy Stepan Sarpaneva
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