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
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