A dozen years ago, Kari Voutilainen was a horological ghostwriter, working anonymously for various high-end watch brands. Except for the few, one-of-a-kind pieces he made under his own label, his work bore the names of others. Now he?s a watchmaking star.
Watchmaker Kari Voutilainen
The turning point came at the 2004 Basel Fair, when Voutilainen had a conversation with his famed fellow independent Philippe Dufour. Dufour had just seen a watch with an extraordinarily intricate movement assembled by Voutilainen. The watch was being offered by a small-series, haut-de-gamme brand. ?Nice piece,? Dufour told him. But Dufour had some advice: Voutilainen should step out of the shadows of other watch brands and put his energy behind his own. Soon after that, another well-known independent watchmaker, Vianney Halter, told him the same thing. Voutilainen recalled the conversations in a recent interview in his workshop in the village of Môtiers in the Swiss Jura. ?I thought to myself, they are right,? he said. It turns out they were.
Kari Voutilainen?s atelier/home in Môtiers.°
Today, Voutilainen is one of the best known and best-regarded names on the independent-watchmaker scene, specializing in small-series and one-off watches. He is admired by collectors for his versatility (he has made tourbillons, repeaters, chronographs, GMT watches, watches with detent escapements, and more), for the quality of his finishing, and for his ability and willingness to custom-make watches for indi...