ArtyA was founded in 2010 as the result of Yvan Arpa’s search for his own niche in the watch industry. After working at a less well-known Swiss watch brand, the former math teacher began creating watches for Hublot and later Romain Jerome—as its CEO—where he excelled at turning the highly unusual into something unique, controversial and sought-after.
However, as we well know, behind every good man is a good woman. And that woman is Arpa’s wife, Dominique Arpa-Cirpka, an artist. In 2009, the two Arpas began working together when Yvan asked Dominique to create a watch dial made of authentic moon dust for a Romain Jerome watch. Where many specialist suppliers failed, Arpa-Cirpka managed to lock the delicate moon dust in place by developing a special technique.
The name of this boutique brand contains not only the double ”A” initials of the creative pair, but also the word “art.” Offering only unique pieces and highly limited series, ArtyA’s mechanical watches are characterized by extravagant ideas involving technical “bolts of lightning” for cases, often-elaborate artistic handmade dials, and catchy themes and names for the collections, whose case sizes range from 38mm to 47mm.
Real bullets
Arpa-Cirpka is not afraid to mix old-fashioned or historically important artistic techniques usually not seen in the watch industry with non-conformist modern methods. These have at times included blood, butterfly wings, spiders, fish scales, fossilized dinosaur feces, shredded euro notes, and, of course, real bullets.
One of the Arpa’s most visceral lines to date is Son of a Gun. Characterized by five patents and the use of authentic bullets and cartridges, the timepieces in this line—whose names range from Werewolf (silver bullet, supposedly hand-forged during a full moon) to Russian Roulette (features a spinning dial with six chambers, only one of which is filled)—all have symbolic value. The Werewolf is meant to keep the “vampires” (blood suckers) at bay, while Russian Roulette reminds us that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
Baselworld sees the emergence of two new Russian Roulette models with freely spinning dials (thanks to the use of ball bearings) in strictly limited editions of just ninety-nine pieces. The dial and movement have both been slightly skeletonized to allow a better view of the pieces’ inner workings.
“The aim was to push the ballistic imagery still further,” says Arpa. “Now it’s as though the bullet has actually gone through the movement, skeletonized holes with the same impact on the barrel and gears.”
With its uniquely shaped case that vividly resembles a guitar, Son of Sound pays tribute to music. Its specially engineered, manually wound movement also boasts something incredible: a patented Active Tuning Pegs System (ATPS). These four “tuning pegs” are actively connected to both the movement and a chronograph. Two act as pushers or buttons to start, stop and reset the chronograph functions. The other two have crown functions to set the hour and date. The jump hour is located in the middle of the case. The date is displayed in the window just below that. The skeletonized hand indicates regulator-style minutes, and the chronograph totalizers are found on either side of the minute hand.
The four strings stretched across the dial are functionless, but are made of hand-stretched gold. New at Baselworld is a fifty-piece limited edition called Race, which pays homage to 1950s-style rock and roll and racing.
Don’t see something you’d really want to wear among the hundreds of unique pieces this brand makes every year? Then just ask. ArtyA also offers customization.