A very rare treat from Finland, this K3 Northern Stars from the enigmatic Stepan Sarpaneva transmutes Finnish life during the Polar Nights of Winter.
A moon disc is set with two of Stepan's iconic Moonfaces in solid rose gold. These pass through the aperture at 6 o'clock to give a wonderful visualization of the phase of the moon. Admittedly, the smokey black hands do not make for the most legible of time tellers however they still do the job in most lighting conditions.
On the reverse side we can see yet another solid gold Moonface as a weight on the winding rotor with lattice pattern. Underneath is a Soprod A10 which conventionally features a date mechanism. Stepan cleverly manipulated this date function to serve as a perfect moon phase indicator.
A caption from an interview with Stepan on Hodinkee, "This is the only movement where it is possible to work the moon phase function directly into it. I can modify the quick set mechanism of the calendar to work with 59 teeth (a moon phase is 29.5 days) instead of 31, which is a big difference when you put the wheels next to each other: the 31-tooth has a big, big, big distance between the teeth, but the 59-tooth is already like a minute wheel. However, making sure that the quick set of my moon phase won’t break when customers are turning the hands in any direction is the tricky thing. That’s watchmaking!"
Furnished on a black alligator strap w/ original SARPANEVA coated buckle. No box and papers to clutter your closet.
DLC coated stainless case measures 42mm x 11mm thick x 45.5mm lug-to-lug.
This watch has sold. To register interest in this watch or a similar piece please email brandon@horologybythesea.com
