Watchlords

Kari Voutilainen might be the busiest man in independent watchmaking.

Born in Finland but long based in Môtiers, Switzerland, Voutilainen has won eight separate GPHG awards, and owns and operates one of the watch world's most in-demand dial-making facilities as well as his own movement manufacture. He's also a proficient creative collaborator with watch companies large and small – often leading to lucrative results.

But when the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire Urban Jürgensen – a company he began working with in the mid-1990s, during the early years of his career – landed at his feet, he couldn't say no. After a few weeks of rumors and social media murmurs, the news broke in late November 2021 that Voutilainen had led a group of investors to acquire Urban Jürgensen from its erstwhile Danish ownership group and subsequently installed himself as the new CEO.

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/kari- ... -jurgensen

Wow, how have I not heard of any of these people or these companies?

Thankfully, Hodinkee is here to save me.

bbattle wrote: ↑

January 7th 2022, 4:34pm

Wow, how have I not heard of any of these people or these companies?

Thankfully, Hodinkee is here to save me.

Yep, looking forward to not reading about that.

Have a look at Voutilainen's dials - he has developed some proprietary contemporary guillochè patterns on colored plates and collaborated with a renowned Japanese lacquer studio on some spectacular dials - came across his work doing some reading on engine turning. Indeed one of the few remaining masters of the multitude of abilities required to hand fabricate an entire watch - probably the best since Daniels with the mechanical and movement aspects, and aesthetically, Voutilainen is an unequalled artisan.

Very cool work - well worth a look. IDK about Hoedinkee, but lots of great articles out there - nice website, too.

3Flushes wrote: ↑

January 8th 2022, 2:43am

Have a look at Voutilainen's dials - he has developed some proprietary contemporary guillochè patterns on colored plates and collaborated with a renowned Japanese lacquer studio on some spectacular dials - came across his work doing some reading on engine turning. Indeed one of the few remaining masters of the multitude of abilities required to hand fabricate an entire watch - probably the best since Daniels with the mechanical and movement aspects, and aesthetically, Voutilainen is an unequalled artisan.

Very cool work - well worth a look. IDK about Hoedinkee, but lots of great articles out there - nice website, too.

I enjoy looking at his work, he is one of a kind when it comes to creating dials. Of course they are way above my pay grade and I’ll never own one, but they are special.

Wow, he does make some nice watches.



His Top 5 watches: https://moneyinc.com/top-kari-voutilainen-watches/

The first pic at the link is the Kaen - its movement is the last pic. The first pic here and the Kaen are both collaborations with Japanese master lacquer studio, Unryuan, with the studio's founder and principal master, Tatsuo Kitamura at the helm of the Voutilainen projects. The designs are made with gold dust, ground green turbon shells and abalone shells which are inlayed. The dials are then lacquered, dried, and polished to several layers deep in keeping with traditional Japanese technique from the Edo period.

Each dial requires thousands of hours of exacting work by a group of artisans to produce, beginning with the hand selection of each piece of shell to be inlayed into the dials, which is said to have taken five people 3 weeks to accomplish for each dial. The sub seconds dial on the Kaen is made from vermillion-lacquered Hoju, a gemstone fabled to make your wishes come true, with the design patterned with gold foil.