Kari Voutilainen is a legend in the world of contemporary independent watchmaking. Over the past 16 years, he’s become one of the most well-regarded members of the niche scene, often specializing in small-series and one-off timepieces. He is known for his horological versatility, producing everything from tourbillons to chronographs; his superlative finishing; and his approachable and accessible nature. When he was in New York recently for WatchTime New York 2018, we were able to sit down with him to discuss this week’s GPHG award where he’s nominated in the Men’s category, the future of global trade show like Baselworld and SIHH, and the development of his 2018 novelty, the 217QRS.
The Voutilainen 217QRS in its gray dial iteration. Can you discuss the development of the 217QRS for a moment"
It’s a limited series of watches, 30 in total, and then 10 in each metal. The aim was for me to make a mechanism easy to use, easy to read, and that won’t break with use. It’s done in a way that [allows for] the instantaneous date jump at midnight and so you can set the date at any moment without fear of anything being broken. Even if it jumps while you are correcting, you can’t break the watch. You can also set it backward and forwards. That was the first challenge and idea that I had in my mind when we did the watch. I like a retrograde [display] because I think that sometimes it’s difficult to make a date window that is balan...