Stepan Sarpaneva is something of a free electron in the watchmaking industry. He’s designing watches like no-one else. In a decade, this Finnish man created a rather confidential brand that however quickly gained attention from the collectors and aficionados. His very personal design and his typical moon-face created a strong DNA – something that MB&F spotted and integrated in the HM3 Moonmachine. For 2015, Sarpaneva comes with a new edition of his Korona K0 that brings something more to the package. This is quite a cool feature but you’ll have to wait the night to come to see it…

The new Sarpaneva Korona K0 Northern Lights is based on Sarpaneva’s sports / dive watch, the K0. This 46mm watch brings back the sharp, angular case handcrafted in Stepan’s Helsinki-based workshop and the 4 o’clock located screw-down crown. As usual, the finishing of the case is superb and even if the size could be seen as robust (or even too large) on paper, once on the wrist it just works – and you have something that looks like nothing else on the market.

As with every trustful sports watch, the Sarpaneva Korona K0 Northern Lights comes with large and legible indices and hands, filled with Super LumiNova and is water resistant up to 100 meters. The dial is composed of a clear base – in light green, light blue or light violet – with a skeletonized brushed plate on the top coated in dark green, dark blue or dark violet DLC. It also comes with a moon-phase indication visible through a window at 6 and showing stars (cut into the disc) and a white or red gold Sarpaneva moon face. The Sarpaneva Korona K0 Northern Lights comes in 3 editions: green with stainless steel case, blue with stainless case and violet with DLC coated stainless steel case.

However, the coolness of the Sarpaneva Korona K0 Northern Lights comes in the dark. If it’s already far from being a shy timepiece in day light, it becomes even crazier at night-time. The light main plate of the dial is actually fully luminous – in green, blue or violet, depending on the edition. It was born as a fine collaboration with James Thompson of Black Badger, the master of the magical moon glow. This guy not only uses Moonglow but he also creates advanced composites that glows in the dark. Sarpaneva uses here Black Badger’s new a proprietary material that gathers ambient light and bleeds it back out over an extended period of time. It’s essentially a mega-output “glow-in-the-dark” material. It works like the luminous indices of our preferred watches but here, we’re not talking about a coating or a paint but a material that can be cut, formed and machined.

This material combined to the skeletonized upper dial, the hands and indices creates an unusual vision. While we are used to read time during the night from contracting indices and hands over a black face, the Sarpaneva Korona K0 Northern Lights reads the other way with dark indications over a luminous plate. In addition, this ambient light gives a more dramatic look to the moon-face.

Inside the Sarpaneva Korona K0 Northern Lights ticks a simple but robust automatic Soprod A10 calibre, modified with a moon-phase module. It will bring 42-hour of power reserve and comes with a personalized DLC coated winding mass with 18K gold moon and masses. It will be available on a choice of leather and rubber straps.

More details on Sarpaneva’s website.

Specs

Movement

Modified Soprod A10 calibre, 11.5 lines, 28800 vph (4 Hz)

Mechanical, automatic winding

Phases of the moon (29.5 days), in-house complication

25 jewels

42-hour power reserve

Rhodium-plated, perlage finishing

DLC coated winding mass with 18K gold moon and masses

Case

Stainless steel, 46 mm in diameter, 12 mm in thickness

1.5 mm thick curved sapphire crystal with multi anti-reflective coating inside

Double secured water-resistant SARPANEVA screw-down crown

Water-resistant to 10 ATM

Dial

DLC coated blue, green or violet with Super-LumiNova indexes

Luminous dials in collaboration with James Thompson of Black Badger Advanced Composites

Moon faces made of 18K red gold and 18K white gold

Rhodium-plated hands with Super-LumiNova

Strap