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Sarpaneva Korona K1 review

In May last year I bought my Sarpaneva Korona K1. This is my first watch from an independent watchmaker and also my most luxurious/expensive watch ever. When Stepan Sarpaneva told me the watch was ready, I booked a ticket to Helsinki to pick it up myself, which was an experience that I will never forget. Now after 9 months of almost continuous wear, it's time for a review to share my experiences of owning and wearing a Sarpaneva Korona K1, my 'grail' watch.



The bare facts….
Maker: Sarpaneva
Model: Korona K1
Limited: number 10 of 10 in total of the first generation K1
Introduction: 2008
Age: 9 months

Sarpaneva Korona collection
Sarpaneva released the Korona collection during Baselworld 2008. The initial collection existed from the K1, K2 and K3. Later the K3 Black Moon was added. The Korona collection is, like all Sarpneva Watches, made in Sarpaneva’s atelier in Helsinki, Finland.

First impressions
The Sarpaneva Korona is a very elegant watch that wears very comfortable. I was amazed by the comments people made. Of all watches I’ve owned, and believe me I used to be quite a ‘flipper’, the Korona K1 received the most spontaneous reactions, positive of course! Even people, who usually never noticed a different watch around my wrist, asked me about it or simply complimented me on my watch. Of course this is not the reason to buy a watch and I never even thought about it, but this pleasantly surprised me.



Experience - wearing
Before I tried a Sarpaneva Korona on my wrist I was afraid it would be slightly too big, due to it’s diameter of 44mm. This is mainly because most of my watches with a diameter of 44mm had to ‘leave the building’ because they where just not comfortable on the wrist.

At Baselworld 2009 I met Stepan Sarpaneva and he let me try a Korona K2 (same size as the K1). By trying it, I discovered that the diameter of his watch was no problem at all. To be honest it felt great and really suited my wrist perfectly.

Although the diameter is the same as that of my old Panerai, the Korona wears completely different. The big difference between my old Panerai PAM00001 and the Sarpaneva Korona is it’s thickness. The Panerai is 15mm thick and the Sarpaneva Korona is only 9.6mm thick. That’s 1/3 less!

Besides that the Korona is also quite light when compared to my other (large) watches. With only 83 grams, including the alligator strap and tang buckle, it feels quite light around my wrist.

In the past 9 months my Korona K1 has been on my wrist at least 95% of the time. The only moments I took it off, was when I had to use hammer or drill around the house, when under the shower and during my recent vacation in India.

After all this time I can say with confidence the Korona K1 is the most comfortable watch I've ever owned. The pure pleasure of wearing this watch and looking at it… it's just superb.



Experience - reading time
Another thing that slightly worried me was it’s legibility. Why? Well, before coming a decision I read everything I could find online.
A few remarks where made by forum members, who actually had never seen a Sarpaneva Korona in the metal. The concern was that the partially polished hands would negatively influence it’s legibility. However other forum members owning a Sarpaneva Korona always refuted this concern.

Now I’ve worn my Korona K1 almost daily i can assure everyone who worried about this, reading time on a Korona K1 is absolutely no problem.
Even in a movie theatre during the movie, it’s possible to read the time by looking in the right angle.

OK, I must admit that usually I need to look at several times before I know the time. This has nothing to do with legibility … it's just me looking at the watch and enjoying it’s beauty while I totally forgot to look for the time. Sounds familiar, or am I the only idiot ;-)



Case
Case: Sarpaneva 3 piece case
Diameter: 44mm
Thickness: 9.6mm
Waterproof: 50 meters
Crown: Sarpaneva crown
Crystal: sapphire with anti reflective coating and SARPANEVA printing

The Sarpaneva Korona models K1, K2, K3 and K3 Black Moon use the same case. It has a diameter of 44mm and is only 9.6mm thick. The new Korona K1, released in September 2009, have a slightly smaller case with a diameter of 42mm.

The sapphire crystal has a multi layer anti reflective coating, applied only on the inside. This is to prevent the AR coating from getting scratched (ugly) when time passes by. The name SARPANEVA is also printed on the inside of the crystal.



Movement and modifications
Base movement: Soprod A10
Jewels: 25
Power reserve: 42 hours
Shock protection: Incabloc
Vibrations: 28,800 p/h
Date adjustment: quick set

Modifications:
-    Sarpaneva Rotor
-    Fully customized mainplate
-    Sarpaneva date disc

For the entire Korona collection, Sarpaneva uses the Soprod A10 as base movement. This movement is designed as competitor to the ETA 2892 and 2824 and virtually all dimensions are the same. One big difference is that a basic Soprod A10 has a factory finish of a higher standard than ETA and is available in ebouche.



Sarpaneva completely modifies the Soprod A10 to his own demands. Besides the polishing and finishing Sarpaneva does, there are some modifications that are necessary for the design.

In the mainplate a hole is laser cut, exactly behind date window, to make it possible to look through the datewindow, datewheel and mainplate and see the oscilation of the balance spring.



The movement ring is attached to the mainplate and both parts are fully DLC treated.



In the case, the movement is fixed with movement holders designed by Sarpaneva. The photo shows a movement without DLC treatment, however the movement holders are clearly visible.



The skelletonized date disc is typical for Sarpaneva. The dates are laser cut in a stainless steel disc of only 0.15 mm thin! On the left is the Soprod datewheel, on the right Sarpaneva's datewheel.



Parts
Hands: Sarpaneva Korona hands
Dial: Sarpaneva Korona K1 dial
Rotor: Sarpaneva Korona K1 rotor

Making and finishing the hands, dial and rotor is very time consuming. The hands are first laser cut and than black polished by hand. The black polishing of the hands is something that costs a lot of time. After the hands are black polished, the piece closest to the middle is sand blasted. The end-parts of the hands stay black polished.




The layers of the dial and rotor are laser cut, at least that’s the start… The rest of the work is done by hand again. First step for the watchmaker is to file the small ‘carrots’ and sharp edges away. Than all edges, and there are many, will be polished to ensure all edges have the same angle to ensure a nice reflections. Again time consuming handwork.

The dial of my K1 has 188 ‘holes’ - 164 ‘holes’ in the dial and 24 in the index ring. Can you imagine this takes a little while? Oh… and this is just the dial, there’s also a rotor ☺

The rotor undergoes the same procedure and is equipped with 2 white gold masses. The dial layers and rotor are only 0.4mm thick.



Strap
The strap is a hand made alligator strap with some light padding. The ends are rounded to match the shape of the case and are 22mm wide.

It comes with a tang buckle with SARPANEVA engraved in it. It looks like the buckle Swatch uses, however it’s feels much more solid. Usually I choose deployant clasps over tang buckles. This buckle however is something else. It’s very easy to use and you can tuck in the strap easily.

Cufflinks
The best addition to a watch….




Interesting posts about Sarpaneva:
Introducing the Korona from Stepan Sarpaneva
Sarpaneva - man or machine
Sarpaneva: Finland, family and design
Picking up my new watch in Helsinki

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