Stardust

3,2,1… Sarpaneva launches into the next 20 years

 The Stardust and Stardust Nostromo form a poignant milestone for Finland’s independent watchmaker: the path Sarpaneva has charted, and the voyage to come, beyond the Moon… to infinity!

 It’s been two decades since Stepan Sarpaneva came home, to Helsinki, Finland: determined to convert everything he’d learned at the workbenches of some of Switzerland’s finest watchmakers into his own creations. 

 Stepan’s otherworldly, neo-Gothic timepieces bore an instant cult following, bolstered by peerless mentorship from fellow Finn, Kari Voutilainen, as well as Swiss masters Vianney Halter, Christophe Claret and Michel Parmigiani himself… But, crucially, inspired by Finland’s unforgiving climate, a family lineage of creative luminaries, plus Stepan’s own stubborn credo: “#notforeveryone”. 

 Twenty years on, this pair of Sarpaneva watches marks this pursuit, into the unknown – what Finns call ‘sisu’. Both hewn from Finnish-forged stainless steel in Stepan’s signature ‘Korona’ shape, but distinguished by their painstakingly open-worked dials, each with futuristic, stencilled numerals fit for a rocket fuselage. 

 One, the Sarpaneva Stardust gazes at the night sky with a hand-flamed titanium base dial glowing from beneath; shimmering with colours wrought from different torch temperatures, and echoing the deep-space constellations captured and rendered so vividly by Observatory telescopes. 

 The other, the Sarpaneva Stardust ‘Nostromo’ is aimed squarely at Sarpaneva’s future – its next two decades’ trajectory – with a dazzling array of hand-applied Tritec luminescence, crafted in-house at Sarpaneva’s workshop. There’s a black polished rocketship small seconds hand at ’10 o’clock’; then its cross-hairs and surrounding numerals glowing in the LED orange of a cockpit display.

 Through the crystal caseback of both Stardust limited editions, the rhodium-plated geometries of Chronode’s ultra-contemporary P.1003 calibre tick surely and steadily. First time switching from center to small seconds. Crucially allowing Stepan to create around the subdial’s spacious, acentric positioning. The Moon is certainly involved, in the bespoke winding rotor. The Sarpaneva ´new moon´ face.

Limited to 20 pieces each

Illustrations by Toni Kysenius