ari Voutilainen is, without doubt, one of the most likeable personalities in the world of watches. Beneath his quiet, almost timid exterior, he is a ball of energy, throwing himself into multiple creations, projects and initiatives with the same enthusiasm. In the past months alone he has cut the ribbon at Brodbeck Guillochage, home to a rare ensemble of rose engines and straight line engines – all in full working order – and is in the process of adding an enamel workshop and an engraving studio. And that’s not all. He has multiple collaborations to his name, and sits on the judging panel for several competitions and prizes. Not forgetting his own recent production, presented in these pages, which includes an exceptional and specially commissioned unique piece.

Kari and Venla Voutilainen

Photo: Guillaume Perret

Still, as we chat, he confesses that he would like to “make more time” for himself, spend longer at the workbench, creating, “because I have ideas, including for unique pieces, certain of which already have a buyer.”

“I’d like to go back to making watches from A to Z,” he tells us and is organising himself accordingly. Kari Voutilainen now spends two days at his Chapeau de Napoléon workshops, perched high above Fleurier, two days in the village itself, at Brodbeck Guillochage, and one day in Biel/Bienne where he can count on Venla’s full support.

Curious to find out more, we met Venla who wasted no time in telling us that Kari, who joined us later, had “nothing to do with” her interest in watchmaking. In case we had any doubts!

Voutilainen 28 CG, 37mm: the Voutilainen 28 CG is a vibrant tribute to the classical art of hand-guilloché. The guilloché patterns and textures on the white dial, the 37mm case in rose gold or platinum, together with the crown, exude refined elegance. They are the work of Brodbeck Guillochage (whose logo appears on the crown and small seconds), recently inaugurated by Kari Voutilainen (and extensively covered by Europa Star) as a place where this rare craft can thrive. The 28 calibre is designed, built, made, finished and assembled at the Voutilainen workshops. Two escape wheels give direct impulse to the large balance via the impulse roller. This innovative construction provides greater energy efficiency and offers significant benefits of longevity, stability and power reserve.

Venla Voutilainen: When you’re a kid, you’re not interested in your parents’ job. You don’t wonder what it is they do all day. My mother was a theatre nurse and surgical instrument technician. My father had his office at home. I’d wander into his workshop from time to time, but that was all.

When I was 14, my school took us to a careers fair, where people from different sectors talked about their profession. We only had ten minutes with each one and I remember leaving the “mechanics” presentation knowing that was what I wanted to do. I went home and told mum and dad I wanted to be a watchmaker. My father was completely taken aback. My mother just raised an eyebrow and said, “Really?” I went back a couple of days later, sat down with an apprentice and within half an hour had taken apart and reassembled a movement. Every piece down to the tiniest screw was where it was supposed to be. After that, I asked my father if he could lend me a movement. He gave me an ETA 6497, which is a basic pocket-watch calibre. Again, I took it apart, completely by instinct, put it back together and it worked. It threw him for a loop. By now I had all the motivation I needed.

So he never tried to push you in that direction?

VV: Not at all. There was never any pressure. I don’t know, something must have trickled down without either of us realising. It’s true, I was quite hands-on, I enjoyed making things, but not for one single second had I considered watchmaking as a career. Nor had my brother, come to that. He did a Master’s in materials at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and now works in the environmental sector.

Voutilainen KV20i Reversed CS: Voutilainen’s rare inverted movement, with its two direct-impulse escape wheels and single-arm balance bridge, is on full show on the dial side of the KV20i Reversed CS, with its display of hours and minutes. The workshop’s trademark hand-guilloché decoration has also been “reversed”, appearing on the chapter ring and subsidiary seconds on the back, in a striking, almost provocative, cherry red. The 39mm case housing the movement adopts a bold cushion shape. Finished with alternating brushed and polished surfaces, it extends into short, curved lugs. This contemporary form is a direct descendant of the Voutilainen TP1 pocket watch for Only Watch 2019, created by Kari Voutilainen with his daughter Venla – who convinced him to add bright orange accents. A forerunner to this particularly vibrant crimson.

That was your first experience of watchmaking. What happened next?

VV: I stuck to it. During secondary school, we were sent on work experience, and the more I did, the more motivated I became. After that, dad took me to a careers advisory centre. It was obvious by now that my mind was made up and he thought I should start with an apprenticeship. There was a stand where you could take apart and reassemble a movement, which I did, and I was offered an apprenticeship with Vaucher Manufacture. I spent four years, from 2015 to 2019, training as a watchmaker-repairer. In 2018 I entered a competition organised by the COSC to assemble and adjust an escapement, coming sixth out of 250 participants.

Vaucher is a large Manufacture, very different to the calm and quiet of your father’s workshops.

VV: That’s true. I learned a lot, but because I was employed in large-scale production I only worked on part of the watch when I really wanted to build a watch from A to Z, learn about oiling, move into complications. The structure didn’t really correspond to what I was looking for. There was so much more I wanted to learn, in so many areas.

And how did you learn “so much more”?

VV: I wanted to travel but not to go sightseeing. I wanted to work, either in Australia or Singapore. In the end I chose Singapore and spent two years in after-sales service at The Hour Glass. Watches from different brands would come in and with just my basic training I’d do a bit of everything. It was a fantastic learning opportunity with real implications. After that, I asked if I could go on the salesfloor, see what it is to have direct contact with the customer and learn about marketing. Being in the store opens your eyes, especially in a different country. You realise how personal a connection people have with their watch. It’s no longer an anonymous object.

Voutilainen 28 Kohan Unique Piece: where to begin when describing this watch, crafted at the request of a Finnish collector as the gift of a lifetime for his wife? Every inch of the decoration, on the dial, the case, the inside and outside of the cover and the movement itself, is how he asked for it to be. Depictions of Lake Saimaa adorn the dial, a Finnish autumn recreated in miniature. On the outside of the cover, two seven-spotted ladybirds, Finland’s national insect, have landed on a silver birch leaf (the country’s national tree). The inside is adorned with lily-of-the-valley, the national flower, and the country’s national butterfly, the holly blue, shown wings spread in search of nectar. An attentive eye will take in the wealth of detail inscribed on the white gold case, such as a tiny map of Finland, a bear’s pawmark (the Finnish national animal) and the lady’s birthday, as well as on the movement itself, with its richly decorated ratchet wheel and bridge… not forgetting an amusing reference to Madam’s favourite water, with a power-reserve indicator in the form of a Vichy mineral water bottle!

Such a remarkable piece is the result of more than a thousand hours’ work and a dizzying number of crafts and techniques: urushi lacquer (tree sap), kinpun (powdered gold), kirigane (cut gold leaf) and kirigai (from New Zealand abalone and turbo marmoratus shells). These shells are chosen for their colour, iridescence and shape, combined with hand-cut elements in gold, platinum and coloured lacquer, then delicately set into rich compositions under successive layers of urushi lacquer. There are also mother-of-pearl flowers, hand-engraving and enamel. The movement, whose plate and bridge are made from German silver and titanium, is enhanced with maki-e lacquer, sprinkled with gold powder.

Every part of the movement is finished to the highest standard. The surface of every pinion and wheel is perfectly flat and polished to exceptionally uniform tolerances. All finishing work on the plate and bridges is by hand to attain the best possible surface finish. Similarly, screws and all steel surfaces are finished and polished by hand.

And now you work together. Kari, you must be delighted.

KV: I could see straight away that Venla had a gift for mechanisms, that she liked complicated, finely crafted movements. We’d already teamed up for the Voutilainen TP1, for Only Watch 2019. Venla had asked me about the first watch I ever made, which was a pocket watch. We decided we would revisit it with a modern twist. We came up with the cushion shape together, which we’ve reprised for one of our newest releases, the KV20i Reversed CS. It was Venla who convinced me to use orange and blue for the Only Watch piece. Working with my daughter is a great stimulus. She brings new ideas, colour, a fresh outlook.

Venla Voutilainen came to watchmaking by following her own path. A journey she’ll continue in part at least alongside her father.