Stepan Sarpaneva

Stepan Sarpaneva (born February 1970 in Turku) is a Finnish watchmaker.

Career

He enrolled in the Finnish School of Watchmaking (Kelloseppäkoulu) in 1989,[1] earned his degree in watchmaking in 1992[2] and then went on to study at the Swiss Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program (WOSTEP).[3]

In Switzerland since 1994, he has worked for several watch brands including Piaget, Parmigiani, Vianney Halter and Christophe Claret. At Parmigiani, he worked as the right-hand man for legendary Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen[4]

In 2003, he returned to Finland and founded a company called Sarpaneva Watches.[5] at the old Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas) in Helsinki, where he makes handcrafted wristwatches. The following year,[6] he also founded S.U.F Helsinki[7] (SarpanevaUhrenFabrik) to make and sell larger batches of more affordable watches. At first, 80% of his work was for Christophe Claret, but since 2007, he has been making his own watches full time[4]

Sarpaneva Watches are known for their peculiar nouveau-Gothic designs. In contrast, the S.U.F Helsinki watches are inspired by Finnish landscapes,[8] philosophies, legends, and pioneers of engineering, speed and design, such as the Finnish World War II fighter plane VL Myrsky, Finnish submarine Vetehinen, legendary motorcyclist Jarno “Paroni” Saarinen and the Finnish concept of Sisu.

Sarpaneva Watches are mainly made out of locally sourced steel,[9] because according to Stepan,[4] there aren't many colors in his world and instead, steel gets its beauty from various finishes, by polishing, sanding or brushing.

In 2009, Stepan Sarpaneva was awarded the Red Dot Design Award for his Korona K3 Black Moon moonphase watch and by the end of the same year, he was awarded two Good Design awards[10] from the Chicago Athenaeum.

In 2018 and 2019, he got a lot of attention for creating an extremely precise moon phase calibre called Sarpaneva Moonment®, utilized in the Sarpaneva Lunations watch model.[11][12] It only needs to be adjusted for a single day of error once every 14,000 years. It launched with a matching iPhone app to track the moon phases.[13]

Other

Stepan Sarpaneva's father was jewelry artist Pentti Sarpaneva[1] and his uncle was industrial designer Timo Sarpaneva.

References
  1. Clerizo, Michael (21 March 2016). "The Finnish Line: Extraordinary Watches From Stepan Sarpaneva". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  2. "Suomalainen kellontekijä, tarua vai totta?". Ilta Sanomat (in Finnish). 8 March 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  3. "Tempered | Stepan Sarpaneva". tempered-online.com. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  4. "Weekly Studio: Stepan Sarpaneva". Helsinki Design Week. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  5. "Sarpaneva Watches". www.sarpanevawatches.com. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  6. "Independent Watchmaking – In conversation with Finnish Watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva". Watchlounge. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  7. "S.U.F Helsinki". S.U.F Helsinki. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  8. Colston, Penelope (18 March 2015). "Finnish Watchmaker Finds Inspiration in His Native Land". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  9. Pennington, Cole (5 February 2020). "Hands-On: The S.U.F. 180 Field Watch From Stepan Sarpaneva". Hodinkee. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  10. "Good Design 2009 Winners List" (PDF).
  11. "Stepan Sarpaneva revealed his own inhouse movement – Stylefellow". Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  12. "Sarpaneva Lunations: The Latest Moon Phase Tech That Lasts (Almost) Forever - With Video". Quill & Pad. 7 April 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  13. "Sarpaneva Moon". App Store. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
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