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KIH
[Purist]
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Kari Voutilainen visits Tokyo!

Kari Voutilainen Visits Tokyo!

The title says it all   I, along with another KV owner (Observatoire AND Chronometer 27) had an opportunity to meet with Mr. Voutilainen ("KV") for the first time in Tokyo.  This was made possible by kind offer by Mr. Masahito Hayashi, who is the proprietor of the high-end jewelry/ watch retail shop - The Carat - in the center of Ginza AND also is/was the student of KV when he was a watchmaker school student.  That is why now The Carat is the sole distributor and authorized dealer of KV in Japan and KV's visit was made possible.  The purpose of the visit was to introduce his new Vingt-8, and we really had a good time.  After the meeting, we left very impressed with his openness and diligence about watchmaking including, of course, this new Vingt-8.

Teacher and student

The other owner, as well as I, was so excited to see him and he threw lots of questions to him about his collection and Vingt-8 very candidly.  I was busy taking pics during that time, but the gist of that conversation and my interview went like this (went into a bit technical details);


The other owner: Why did you NOT come up with the different or new look of the dial?

KV: This IS actually the new look.  We now have new color and new pattern.  This one here is dark navy blue with the touch of purple depending on the light and angle.  One of my favorite colors.  One thing I have noticed is that most people choose Roman numerals which make a beautiful contrast appears in sight, while there are some preferred Arabic.  Consider this my "trademark" or "business card".  It's the matter of taste.

PPro: How big is your operation now? 

KV: We are now 13-people operation.  I am fortunate that the manufacture and my house is adjacent and very easy for me to go to work   But with these people, we can only make 40 pieces a year.


PPro: What are the biggest challenges to create this new movement and new model?

KV: Too many and don't know where to start   We have had difficulty getting the parts which satisfy our requirement from outside suppliers - they all belong to or prioritize the orders from the big companies.  So, we had no choice but making the parts ourselves and that was the biggest challenge.  For example, the escapement parts are so difficult to find the satisfactory parts anywhere. In the case of Observatoire, the parts we found with the movement cache were very good.  The technology and skill must have been lost to some extent since then.

PPro: Will you pick up and tell us a few points you had most difficulty in the new movement and the model?

KV: The first point worth mentioning is the escape wheels and the anchor.  Please note here that the bridge and most other parts are made of German Silver, but this escape wheels (note: plural) and the anchor lever are made of steel (heat-treated) in order to make the movement last longer.  Making and polishing these parts were a bit tough.  Now as you can see, there are two escape wheels that are controlled by the new shape anchor to increase the stability and accuracy.  The pinion for the balance wheel is extremely difficult to make as little tolerance is allowed after all the cutting and polishing (note: see the illustration below).

Skeches by Mr. Voutilainen to illustrate the escapement mechanism

Illustration: top - structure of dial attached to the movement
bottom - the pinion of the balance wheel with so little tolerance

KV: Also, I have hidden the wheels attached to these escape wheels on the dial side, for stable oscillation and aesthetic reasons.  So the escape wheels are controlled (or supported) during impulse locking one after the other and the view of the balance wheel is pretty smooth and beautiful at the same time.

On the left is the display back side, on the right is the dial side - dial side wheels are made of German Silver.
The locking jewel (ruby) is also made by KV himself and set underneath the anchor lever.

KV: And then the dial.  The dial foot are not just inserted into the movement.  Here, I have soldered small pipes inside which are threaded and the dial is actually screwed from the bottom of the movement, which is the display back side.  This is for the shock so that the dial does not go off so easily with certain shock. 

He drew the structure of dial attached to the movement

One of the two screws that attach the dial (center of the photo, big one).

KV: If I may add, the Geneva stripe was done by certain wood - the same as what Mr. Dufour uses is used on this model (not on Observatoire), and the spiral pattern on the ratchet wheel is my trademark - I have developed how to do it.  It is the same spiral as on Observatoire but it is frosted finish but it looks like the spiral by light. It took me over 10 years to master the technique.

PPro: Observatoire was also free sprung and as I can see, so is Vingt-8.  How do you regulate it?  It must be very narrow range you can regulate.

KV: On the contrary, we can regulate it in the range of two minutes per day.  Look at this pic. The balance wheel was poised perfectly and there are weights (rose gold) on each of the arm and by moving these, it is pretty easy to regulate.  I like free sprung.  Free sprung means less parts and more reliability.

PPro: Well, thank you very much indeed for your time today.
KV: Thank you for coming.


Mr. Voutilainen kindly gave us the famous book - 12 Faces of Time, and autographed it...  Wow, thank you so much.

Overall, although he came to introduce his new watch, he was so enthusiastic about the technical details and passion.  We saw that he is really doing this for love and passion.  Next time, I would love to have talk with them over lunch or dinner.   Thank you, Mr. Hayashi for arranging this and thank you, Mr. Voutilainen for your time and interview.

Best,
Ken

PS: Enjoy other various pics with some additional info.

Movement sizes 30.00mm x 5.60mm, 18,000 v.p.h., all visible wheels in the gear train are made of rose gold