Sarpaneva x Valtteri Bottas ”Kilpisjärvi”

A fine, Finnish watch with a mesmerising dial and all-new automatic movement, for a Flying Finn who, from time to time, depends on the calm of his Northern heartland and its spellbinding night sky

Shimmering in purple, orange and turquoise, through handpainted wisps of luminescent paint - framed by the lunar dimples of his ‘Korona’ moon case - the mesmeric dials beaming out of Stepan Sarpaneva’s Helsinki workshop couldn’t look less like your typical watch/motoring hook-ups with their carbon-fibre bits and tyre-tread straps.

But that is to forget the equally important flipside of a life spent as a Formula 1 pilot, embodied by the new ‘Kilpisjärvi’ watch: rest, recuperation… escape, from a flying circus where PR is as prioritised as pitstop strategy.

Being Finnish, Valtteri Bottas always had an advantage on the track given the pre-legal driving abilities demanded by his country’s unrelenting climate and topography. Not to mention the resultant, stoic ‘sisu’ mindset of his people. But Finland’s Northern wildnerness, Lapland, happens to offer as much spiritual respite. Hence, Valtteri’s treasured bolthole up there, in the snow, beneath the dazzling ‘Aurora Borealis’, where he gravel races on his tuned-up gravel bike though thick forests.

And hence his equally dazzling new collaboration with fellow Finn, Stepan - the follow-up to October’s ‘VB77’ surprise release under Sarpaneva’s UhrenFabrik ‘S.U.F’ imprint’. Following in the footsteps of S.U.F’s original tribute to another ‘Flying Finn’ – motorcycling’s Jarno ‘Paroni’ Saarinen – and designed closely with Valtteri in joyously racy fashion.

The two have obviously found kindred spirits in each other, as outwardly the in-house-skeletonised dial has been rendered with “Tritec” lume in complete coherence and artistry with next-to-no discernible whiff of petrol or oil. Just the complete sense of stillness and majesty that a fresh fall of snow at the Arctic Circle can only bring.

But then, you peer beneath the proverbial hood, and Sarpaneva brings things back to high-octane mechanical matters - albeit with cool, calm simplicity. Through the crystal caseback of Kilpisjärvi are framed the rhodium plated geometries of Chronode’s ultra-contemporary P.1003 mechanics, moving Sarpaneva up another gear for this watch. The Moon is certainly involved, in the bespoke winding rotor. Its enigmatic grinning / grimacing motif? The Sarpaneva ´new moon´ face of course.

Bearing more of a resemblance to Valtteri than Stepan, now we think about it…

Limited Edition of 17 watches