The Long Road: Introducing the Sarpaneva Dragonskin Damascus Watch
They say all great things start with a dumb idea and a little too much ambition. Perhaps that’s not the exact line, but it sure feels like it should be, sometimes. Looking back on the three-year development that led to the creation of this Sarpaneva Watches Dragonskin — the first wristwatch ever made with a solid Dragonskin Damascus steel dial — it’s almost humourous how all the puzzle pieces slowly fell together. If it weren’t for the free time brought on by the pandemic. If it weren’t for my introduction into high end custom knife making. If it weren’t for my ability to fall down research rabbit holes surrounding materials and precision manufacturing. If it weren’t for the willingness of two friends to step outside their comfort zones a little, we wouldn’t be here.
And where is here, exactly? Here would be the formal reveal of a personal project — a one-of-one commission creation by the fantastical Finnish watchmaker, Stepan Sarpaneva. While all his creations are unique and expressive, this Dragonskin Damascus watch is different. Sure, its 42mm case is made of high-grade Outokumpu stainless steel from Finland and the watch is powered by a modified Swiss-made Chronode automatic movement with a power reserve of 60 hours, but that’s not what this piece is all about. The real story here is all about the dial, as it’s a far cry from the usual horological tales of enamel, stone, or guillochage.
Those rich hues of blue and purple spattered across its dial are not etching, painting, or stamping. That is the natural pattern created in the forging process of the material, and its final form is the byproduct of a foolish number of hours of cutting, lapping, and polishing to achieve lightband flatness, as well as further heat treatment to achieve proper colouration. The trials and tribulations involved in achieving the desired aesthetic were mostly bore by Grimsmo Knives Director of Operations (and long-time friend) Angelo Fisher, who embraced the opportunity put the firm’s precision machinery to work in a horological capacity.
As for the material itself, I won’t blame you if the words Dragonskin Damascus mean nothing to you — for many this will be a first introduction to this wonderfully finicky material. Most by now have seen traditional Damascus steel, often mass-produced using techniques that don’t suitably represent the material’s complexity. Traditionally, Damascus steel adopts wavy patterns due to the heating, folding, and hammering of steel bars — a rather ancient technique first developed to help make a harder, more durable steel. Down in South Africa, the award-winning custom knifemaker Bertie Rietveld not only crafts art in the form of blades, but he also forges his own interpretations of Damascus steel including the Dragonskin pattern that was used for this dial. The moment I came across his work I was smitten with the material. Organic, imperfect, full of brightness and charm, this was the flashpoint that led to my message to Stepan in 2021, saying “What if I had a crazy weird stupid idea…?”
It didn’t take much persuading, really. It’s a hard material to dislike, and if I could deliver a “finished” dial, he would accept the commission to complete a watch around it. Angelo and I had already been discussing how and when Grimsmo’s extensive machining capability could be applied to a watchmaking project, and I’d already broken the ice with Rietveld with a plan to acquire the raw materials.
Those were the easy parts. First, our initial batch of material brought with it imperfections that would only come to light during final heat treatment. Once we finally confirmed it was a material failure and not a process error, the material was replaced, and the next test became a matter of finding the correct level of polishing to let the reflections of the material sing. A tweak here, a cut there, and a foolish amount of time on a lapping table later, a small set of dials were ready for Stepan’s vision. The dial samples were handed off during this past year’s Dubai Watch Week, and a handful of weeks later we began trading messages over colour choices for indices, a debate over the use of luminous indices, and whether I would actually wear it on a bracelet (that was a no, for now).
Unlike other editors in the category, this little endeavour was never meant to be more than an exercise in seeing a dream worked through to completion. There’s good reason the watch was not a co-brand effort in the way we’ve seen from a variety of publishers and notable watch collectors. That said, Sarpaneva’s final word was to share this as “one of very few”, meaning there’s a chance for a few more examples to be crafted, with the right amount of patience. (21,000 Euros)
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