Quite probably one of the most recognisable objects on earth if you were standing the surface of the moon, thanks to its imposing appearance and outstanding signature traits, Finnish master Stepan Sarpaneva emerges from the dark Nordic winter with his latest horologic spectacular, the Lunations Harvest Moon.

There’s the common or garden variety of cool that we can all experience once in a while when our mojo’s flowing, we’re feeling good and everything seems to click into place. And then there’s the Stepan Sarpaneva category of cool, an altogether different kind of perma-state, where conventional design and sober, reserved aesthetics take a back seat to make way for something darker, quirkier and maybe even sinister.

Stepan Sarpaneva will readily admit that the watches he has made his life’s work are #notforeveryone. In fact that is the very hashtag which accompanies every one of his social media posts, but while he might have a point alright, because as the old saying goes, you can’t please all of the people all of the time, you could also level that same statement at about just about any watch brand out there. Put it another way; I don’t know many who don’t absolutely love what this remarkable Helsinki-based indie watchmaker does. I have long been of the opinion that so often in the independent sector, the watch is almost a physical extension of the personality behind it, and with its full moon face staring straight out at you, few express that sense of being in the room with you more emphatically than he.

Sarpaneva’s fixation with the moon, and his wonderful depiction of it as a horologic function, has been an ongoing theme over the past (almost) twenty years or so, as, with its curled lips and furrowed brow (yes, this is the moon we’re talking about), with which he has aspired to encapsulate an inherent native Finnish melancholic demeanour, instilled in his own DNA, and that of his fellow countrymen, it has been a dominant presence and a recurring signature in so many of his watches, not to mention how it has also become possibly the entity which defines Sarpaneva’s style.

We may have stopped expecting the unexpected from Sarpaneva quite some time ago, thanks to those unique and unmistakable designs, but still the quietly spoken Finn has the knack of springing a surprise, and while his latest creation, the Lunations Harvest Moon, is a variation on his 2019 technical masterwork, it is a technical tour de force which is breathtaking in its design, its beauty and its complexity.

Featuring his own first fully in-house haute horlogerie calibre, which is conceived around the moon phase, and which he has even christened the Moonment, his Lunations has taken this central character to another, even more extreme and technical level. It serves as a not-so-subtle reminder that he is after all a graduate of the prestigious WOSTEP watchmaking academy in Neuchâtel, and a master watchmaker who has also served his time alongside modern day luminaries such as compatriot Kari Voutilainen and the wonderfully eccentric visionary Vianney Halter, as well as with Piaget, Parmigiani Fleurier and Christophe Claret. Moonment may have an amusing name, but there’s nothing funny about its profound technical and mechanical complexity.

Designed and developed by Sarpaneva, and abetted with consultative input by undisputed moon phase world champion Andreas Strehler in regard to the mathematical and engineering logistics required to create it, the manual winding Moonment is a fully integrated moon phase movement. With a lunar cycle of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and precisely 2.3 seconds it is so accurate that were it to run without stopping, it will need one adjustment of a single day once every 14,000 years, or never in our own lifespan terms, and at this rate of human burnout probably not for about another 200 generations into the future. Put a reminder in the box.

Like all of his work, the Lunations Harvest Moon is a thing of immense, but hard and uncompromising beauty. Its chunky chiseled case with fingertip sized indentations and the stripped-back dial, which is essentially just the chapter ring which has prominent, luminous accented heat-blued hour markers, lays bare the skeletonised movement plate. The effect is inspired by a simple Helsinki street manhole cover, and gives the watch a tough industrial look which is almost steampunk, but yet, as is his way, not, and on closer examination those pronounced, robust features reveal themselves as being finely crafted, delicately finished and overall beautifully executed.

The layered elements create a three dimensional vista and the movement is integral to the display, with the balance, gear train and barrel cover as well as the pink rubies all adding to Lunation’s strong mechanical aesthetic. New to the Harvest Moon are the skeletonised hands which, like the hour indices, are generously coated with powerful Super-LumiNova, which glows a vivid blue in low light environs. Dominating proceedings however is that dramatic moon phase. For this, Sarpaneva has introduced a groundbreaking concept of a round translucent lens of optical fibres, which has his trademark scowl formed into its surface. Rotating beneath this, two opposing orbs represent the moon orbit as they pass through, and with the luminescent orange glow of the Tritec Lumicast material used to coat them, the Harvest Moon display is literally illuminated as the colour is projected upwards through the optical fibres.

Another eye-catching and unusual feature on the dial is the toothed ring around the moon display. The two appear at first to be related in some way, but in fact the ring is separated and rotates on the tiny ball bearings just visible, and it winds the mainspring inside the barrel when the watch is being wound. It is an ingenious and elegant piece of engineering which solves the problem of incorporating everything into the confines of this remarkable movement, by using the central feature to accommodate another essential part of the impressively slim manually-wound mechanism, and indeed making the whole thing possible.

On the underside, the workings of the moon phase are revealed behind a sapphire caseback, and around the bezel, the plus and minus countdown allow for the function to be calibrated with precise accuracy via the crown, making it simple to correct if the watch has been allowed to exhaust its sixty hour power reserve.

Measuring a very tidy 42mm across, with its large and tactile crown at the four, it is encased in superior Finnish Outokumpu Supra stainless steel, with a matte satin finish, and which incidentally can also be given a black DLC treatment, and it boasts a water resistance of 50atm too, so it is not afraid of the great outdoors (if we ever get to leave our nests to explore it again).

As well as being a devilishly handsome piece of contemporary design, Stepan Sarpaneva’s Lunations Harvest Moon really is an exceptional example of innovative and creatively expressive independent haute horlogerie, and in a very overcast 2020, its warm glimmer of light is an uplifting beacon in a dark and stormy sky, for some of us anyway.

Sarpaneva Lunations Harvest Moon Fact file:

REFERENCE: Lunations Harvest Moon
MANUFACTURER: Stepan Sarpaneva
LIMITED EDITION: Ten pieces
CASE: Stainless steel
SIZE: ø 42 mm
THICKNESS: 9.8 mm
DIAL: Skeletonised with luminous hands and indices
FEATURES: Optical fibre moon phase display with orange Tritec Lumicast
MOVEMENT: In-house manual winding Moonment. Power reserve: 60 h, 21’600 vph
FUNCTIONS: Hours, minutes, moon phase
POWER RESERVE: 60 hours
BRACELET/STRAP: Black crocodile leather
BUCKLE: Steel buckle
WATERPROOF RATING: 500m
PRICE EXCL.VAT: 35’000 EUR