KARI VOUTILAINEN

I was 10 when I first realised that I really liked working with my hands. After finishing high school, I attended a watchmaking school where I discovered that this was something that I truly enjoyed. Since then, watchmaking has never felt like work for me. During the 1990s, I created a few watches from my workshop at home. By 2002, I decided to become fully independent, and set up an official workshop outside my home and started working on the very first watch under my own label.

For me, to be independent means financial independence, having the freedom to create, and to do everything so that we know how to get things done without having to depend on suppliers. One of the biggest challenges in the beginning was keeping the workshop small, which meant having to limit our production. While there was a lot of demand for our watches, it was more than we could actually make. This meant we had to turn down some customers, which was difficult because it is always easier to just say, ‘Yes, we will make a watch for you.’

The Voutilainen Aki No Kure (unique piece).

Currently, we produce about 40 watches per year. There are 21 people working at the workshop, including watchmakers, watch technicians in charge of constructing new movements, finisseurs, who specialise in making the movements look nice, craftsmen in charge of the decorations on the dials, and even mechanics who maintain the machines used to create these watches.

When it comes to creating a watch, I usually seek inspiration from nature, architecture and vintage cars. I enjoy observing geometrical forms, and some of my favourite designs are by architects such as Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen and Mario Botta. Looking at what they have created, it’s amazing to think how these structures have remained beautiful even after so much time has passed. It’s not just the whole building but even the smallest details, such as door handles and hinges, which, when put together, looks absolutely perfect. As for cars, I love models like the Mercedes SL, Jaguar’s MK2 and e-type, Morgan and so on. They all have these beautiful, soft lines that seem fluid and transform when observed from different angles. This is also one of the reasons I always like adding tear drop lugs to my watch designs.

In 2017, we released the Aki- No-Kure. The base movement of the watch comes from the Vingt-8, while the decoration and dial were by Unryuan Kitamura Tatsuo, a renowned Japanese lacquer artist who founded one of the greatest lacquer studios in the world. The lacquer technique used on this watch is centuries old and known only in Japan, which makes it very rare. So, I feel both lucky and very fortunate to be able to collaborate with him on this project as he is considered the best in his field. I was actually introduced to Kitamura by one of my students at my watchmaking school, and none of this would have been possible without this trusted person.

Passion has always played a role in whatever it is that I choose to do, and I share this passion with others, especially when it involves creating bespoke pieces and bringing someone’s dream to reality. At Voutilainen, we are in this for the long run, which is why I want to ensure that the things we create will stand the test of time. This not only refers to watches, but also the workshop and the philosophy behind the brand, which is to never compromise on either quality or passion – one that I hope will remain even after I’m long gone. My advice for aspiring watchmakers would be to keep working at their craft while focusing on restorations, so that they can learn about what has already been done in the past and take it from there.