My second day, wasn't full of appointments, rather time to walk the show meet friends old & new. I did have an appointment with Armin Strom, mostly out of courtesy to their very likeable international sales director Sebastian, who has been dogging me for over 6 months to work with them. I appreciate their products and their mission, but they are not a watchmaker who I need to work with. My preference is for small artisanal watchmakers rather than independent brands, and in Armin Strom's case well funded and not really needing my services to help market and sell the watches. They have Sebastian, who has been around the block and to my observation, is doing a great job. They showed their new system called a Configurator, which allows for clients to mock up their own version of an ideal custom unique watch. Various components can be colored with ADLC & a choice of metals for the case etc. The car industry has been at this for while now, and I'm only surprised a watch company hasn't done this before now. Congrats to the team at Armin Strom for giving the reins to the consumer, my belief is that this is where the luxury branded watch industry is headed. Now that I think about it, Vacheron did try a half cock attempt with their original introduction of the Quai De L'Ile in 2008, where one could have a small choice of case component and a couple of dial options from memory. Perhaps the technology wasn't up to speed back then...plus they had certain options that the client was not allowed to choose. Constricting the buyers choice doesn't seem to be terribly smart these days!
See this link http://www.thehourlounge.com/en/vacheron-constantin-articles/quai-de-lile-vacheron-constantins-bohemian-rhapsody-560871
Anyway, I then wandered over to meet up with Stepan and see his latest wizardry from Helsinki. There's obviously something in the water, or maybe it's just that lack of daylight in the deepest part of winter, that allows for his extra-ordinary creativity. On top of the fact that he is brilliant watchmaker, he's a delight to spend time with. A character of note. The watches this year were again utilizing a luminous material on the dial in a Super Hero shield type of configuration. Evel Knievel being a man to whom Stepan pays a lot of respect to, as a fellow motorcycle enthusiast, Daredevil is the new Korona K0 model for 2017. 20 pieces will be made in each model, Dusk & Dawn.
Dawn in daylight
Last year's collaboration with James Thompson of Black Badger Advanced Composites fame, The brilliant Korona K0 Seasons was a tremendous success, but with many artists, Stepan creativity and design ethos follows his heart, and that path had run it's course, so the Daredevil models feature Superluminova this year and will appeal I believe to a sightly different audience than previously.
Daredevil Dusk
Dusk's Lume charged...
He has a good friend and supporter, Kari Voutilainen, who helps with some dial execution, as he owns a dial factory in Switzerland, where some exquisite guilloche and enamel dials are made to friends specifications. Stepan has created a series of guilloche dials for his Korona K0 watches. I love the green with the moonphase...
In order to fulfill some wishes of watch buyers in his home country of Finland and being a proud Finn, Stepan created a second brand if you will, called SUF Helsinki. Standing for SarpanevaUhrenFabrik, it is in his own words:
"It’s limited edition, mechanical timepieces are designed and assembled in the heart of Helsinki by the Baltic Sea, with a style and build quality of distinctly Scandinavian pedigree. But it goes further than that – S.U.F. is horology’s embodiment of a certain “Finnishness”; grit and determination known as sisu.
It’s impossible to translate literally but the stoicism and sheer guts that sisu describes are born of Finland’s remoteness, and long, bleak winters. With limited resources, the elements always against them, the country’s people have nonetheless risen to the challenge in every field, from the sea, to the land and into the air. And it is there that S.U.F. thrives, inspired by Finnish pioneers of engineering, speed and design – every one of them with sisu in spades."
The initial model named Myrksy, is a simple Time & date watch with a pilots style dark grey dial. This year though, Stepan upped his game with a Sports watch, the Vetehinen, which is 300m depth rated and features a Uni-directional dive bezel, screw down crown, brilliant Harpoon hands and 4 dial color variations. I eagerly ordered several blues and a couple grey dial pieces.
To be continued...