Independents

ztirual
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Not that many Observatoires

There has been much speculation, also on this very forum, about the total number of Observatoire made by Voutilainen. I believe it to be closer to 60 and, in any case, much lower than 150. I recall that Gary attempted to make some form of census, maybe he can cast some light on this issue. It is fair to say that Voutilainens atelier has expanded somewhat since he won the the Grand Prix de Geneve for his Observatoire. When visiting his workshop in early 2008, I counted 3-4 assistant watchmakers. I think I have read somewhere that he now has some 13 employees. We can therefore expect a bigger output then say 3 to 4 years ago. We are still very far from the numbers produced by the most select 'brands'.
I had the chance to buy an Observatoire and have never regretted it. If I hadn't, I wouldn't hesitate a second ordering my very own vingt-8, a watch that shares many of the qualities of the Observatoire, yet with its very own strong personality and qualities. Ken's excellent article on Kari's visit to Tokyo of late draws attention to both obvious and other much more subtle design improvements of the vingt-8 line.
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Ztirual