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Wear your heart on your sleeve this Valentine’s Day with the ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby

Wear your heart on your sleeve this Valentine’s Day with the ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby

Buffy Acacia
  • The ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby comes in a special case that makes it fluoresce in time with a heartbeat.
  • It’s a unique piece for Valentine’s Day, but the 40mm ruby case will look fantastic any day of the year.
  • The Purity Stairway to Heaven movement explores balance and asymmetry, hiding all of its components within four circular structures.

ArtyA has been a pusher of boundaries from the very beginning, only now its experiments are deeply entrenched in the worlds of materials science and haute horology. That doesn’t mean it’s lost its sense of whimsy though, as this unique piece created for Valentine’s Day proves. Playing with the natural fluorescence of ruby, this ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby can be displayed with a thrumming heartbeat.

ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby 1

Getting into the nitty-gritty of gemmology, the term “ruby” does have some specific requirements. Where it may historically have just referred to any red gemstone, the studies of crystallography and mineralogy gave clear definitions to its terminology. First and foremost, it is a variety of corundum, which we also know as sapphire. Corundum is the crystal form of aluminium oxide, and different elemental impurities create the various colours that we prize in jewellery and luxury watch cases. While any colour of corundum can be called sapphire, it becomes known as a ruby when it is coloured red by the presence of chromium. Chromium naturally fluoresces a hot pink colour when exposed to certain wavelengths of light, and that’s how the case of this watch gets its light show.

ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby 2

The flashing lights timed like a heartbeat are only within the watch’s display case, so there are no electronics actually within the watch itself. If you wanted to replicate the beating heart effect while wearing the watch, you’d need to carry around a little UV torch. A pure ruby case is still an exciting thing, however, with the lab-grown crystal completely free of inclusions and incredibly saturated with colour. It’s not just beautiful, but its hardness makes it one of the most scratch-resistant materials in the world. Watches like these are usually oversized, but I’m also glad to say that the 40mm diameter and 13mm thickness keep the Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby in a firmly wearable zone.

ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby 3

Of course, even without the pulsing light gimmick and the ruby case, this watch still has a lot to offer. The Purity Stairway to Heaven movement isn’t quite in-house, as it’s made with the help of Télôs Watch, but the intention is all ArtyA. The titular stairway is formed by a series of ascending bridges that support the balance wheel at 3 o’clock, itself a beating heart of the watch. The other side of the dial contains an asymmetrical time display with hours and minutes, including offset markers to compensate for the hand positions. It may not be the easiest watch on which to read the time, but that’s not really the point. The twin mainspring barrels provide the movement with 72 hours of power reserve at a 4 Hz beat rate, and they’re arranged in parallel for even power delivery.

ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby price and availability

The ArtyA Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby is a unique piece, available from February 14th, 2025. Price: US$82,900

Brand ArtyA
Model Purity Stairway to Heaven HMS Wavy Ruby
Case Dimensions 40mm (D) x 13mm (T)
Case Material Lab-grown ruby
Water Resistance 30 metres
Crystal(s) Sapphire front and back
Dial Open
Strap Black nubuck leather
Movement Purity Stairway to Heaven, developed with Télôs, manual-winding
Power Reserve 72 hours
Functions Hours, minutes, seconds
Availability Unique piece available from February 14th, 2025
Price US$82,900