Hands-on with the Sarpaneva Emali and Korona Kosmos

06/05/2014 | By Frank Geelen | 3 min read |

Baselworld is always good for a lot of hands-on experience. At Monochrome we have a lot of hands-on experience with watches created by Stepan Sarpaneva, except for this new Korona K1 with enamel dial. It is called ‘Emali’ and Stepan Sarpaneva, who comes from a family of famous designers, designed it as a tribute to his late father, Pentti Sarpaneva, who used enamel in the jewelry he designed.

This is maybe just one of those facts that most people who know Sarpaneva’s watches do not know about the maker. But his father, Pentti Sarpaneva, was a famous jewelry designer who’s career started some 50 years ago. When you’re 35+ I think you’ll recognize his jewelry style, if you do do a search online. Stepan’s uncle is Timo Sarpaneva who is best known in the art world for innovative work in glass, which he often designed for Iittalla, and a very well known cast-iron pot that even made it onto a Finnish post stamp in 1998. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if you immediately recognized some of his designs. Doesn’t that sounds like artistic roots?

Stepan Sarpaneva himself is praised among peers as a darn good watchmaker, however we should not forget his unique designs, fusing timeless elegance with unorthodox boldness. The Emali is one of Stepan’s cleanest designs, while the new Korona Kosmos is on the other side of the spectrum. Several layers of skeletonized dials and a large moon phase indication, showing Sarpaneva’s iconic moon FACE.

The Emali is a variation on the (already) third generation Korona K1 and is the first to feature an enamel dial. The first generation Korona K1 was larger, measuring 44mm in diameter, and the second generation Korona K1 measured a pleasant 42mm in diameter. All other design elements are still in place, and show the strong Sarpaneva design DNA. Like the two-part stainless steel index rings around the dial.

And like the iconic skeletonized rotor, with 18K gold winding masses, and Sarpaneva’s moon FACE. The rotor and one of the lower of the two stainless steel index rings, will be diamond coated, in black, imperial blue or rust brown (choice by customer).

The Korona K1 Emali is available in stainless steel (€ 8,000 Euro), 18K red gold and 18K white gold (€ 18,000 Euro). Each material is limited to 8 pieces and we just heard that on the time of writing, six of the steel version have already been sold. So when you’re interested, you better give him a call soon (here you can find his details). The Korona K1 Emali was one of our favorites at Baselworld this year.

Next is the Korona Kosmos, that we introduced to you here. Because of the additional complication (moon phase indication) and complex dial and disk with stars, it will be priced higher. The Korona Kosmos is available for € 14,500 Euro in stainless steel and € 25,000 Euro in 18K gold. This one is also 42mm in diameter and is 11.2mm thick. Inside ticks the Soprod A10, that Sarpaneva has been using on all his Korona models. The movement is similar in size to the ETA 2892, and hands can even be exchanged. The automatic winding calibre A10 beats at 28800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz), has a 42-hour power reserve, and uses 25 jewels. The phases of the moon phase (29.5 days) are indicated with a silver or gold moon face.

Now we’ll show you the ‘Northern Stars’ in 18K red gold with a DLC coated imperial blue dial. Isn’t this truly STUNNING? Maybe this works as inspiration for you. I just know that I can imagine that the new Korona Kosmos will also look absolutely fab in 18K red gold with imperial blue dial.