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Gary G
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More on our visit with Kari

Greetings to all!  As promised, here's a longer narrative of the highlights of our visit with Kari last week, including more photos.

We drove up from Interlaken, and the navigation system in our rental car guided us to Kari's new home and atelier:

Quite beautiful!  For those who have visited Kari's previous workshop, the contrast is startling.  This home was previously owned by a doctor, and what is now the atelier portion of the building was until recently a set of apartments with its own side entrance:

It was only after returning home that I noticed the interesting "hairspring" motif on the ironwork in the windows.  Looking at all of my photos, it seems that this appears in several locations and may be original to the building -- quite appropriate for its current resident.

The entire time we were there, Kari kept apologizing for the "messy" look of the place due to the recent move -- it looked quite tidy to me!  While Kari hired professional painters to work on the atelier, he and his wife re-painted the residence.  We joked that he was probably the most fastidious painter in the world, but he said that his wife was even more demanding -- wow.  The workshop is laid out on several levels connected by a steep stone stairway, and has wood floors and (on the upper levels) lots of light -- quite modern.  We didn't see the residence, but Kari said that it is "like a museum" -- furnished in a very traditional style in keeping with the nature of the building.  At one point Kari said that he missed riding his bicycle to work -- but I think that he gets lots of exercise going up and down those stairs.

The tour started in the basement with the machining area.  In one room are the traditional lathes and milling machines along with the machines for gear tooth polishing, perlage, striping, etc.  In the other room are the new CNC machines:

The interesting story here is that Kari approached several European machine makers, but had trouble getting their attention -- one even refused to quote him a price because, they said, "it is way too expensive for you."  In the end, Kari found a California manufacturer (how about that!) who offered a very reasonable price.  Kari's delighted with the machines -- he said that he was the first one to get one from this manufacturer, but that now several other watch companies use the same machines (I can confirm that Parmigiani, which we visited later in the day, had some of the same brand of CNC machines in use.

A typical output: a raw balance wheel:

Kari said that it's fantastic being able to walk downstairs and ask for a specific wheel to be made, and then get it seemingly in real time -- versus the 3-month waiting times that he has been used to in the past.  We noticed one raw piece on the table that Kari said was a calendar plate -- hmm...

Up a few flights of stairs is the room that Kari is going to use himself, and specifically for casing watches.  It's still in the "move-in" stage:

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He told us that he doesn't need a "clean room" because of the multiple steps he takes to ensure that all elements of the case and internals are spotless.  Also, he's casing up about two watches per month -- not enough to justify an industrial facility!

The top floor, until recently an unused attic, is now the main workshop -- lots of skylights and natural light, and a very pleasant working environment, I would think.  One of Kari's colleagues was regulating a watch -- more on this shortly.  We turned our attention to Kari's bench.  First, he showed us the "black and white" watches that I included in my earlier post and won't repeat here.  Next, an Observatoire movement under construction:

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Note the circular "Voutilainen" marking on the bridge, the tourbillon balance cock, and the frosted gold finishing on the movement -- all features that seem quite popular with some of the PuristS who have taken recent delivery (or who are anticipating delivery soon).  Seeing the movements cased up is great, but to me you have to see them uncased to get the full impact of the quality of finishing that Kari achieves and the "glow" of the finished product.  By the way, Kari said that he has delivered only 5 pieces to customers so far in 2009 because of his move and the absence of one of his colleagues due to military service.  He is cranking things up, though, and expects to continue delivering on schedule.

Moving on: a tray of plates and bridges, again with the frosted finish -- look at the gleam on the rounded edges!  Seeing it in person is 10 times better than my feeble pictures:

Next up: a Cal. 27 movement.  It's a big one!  As you can see, this is the one with the special "invisible balance"     You can also tell that there's some work left to be done -- final finishing or substitution of some screws, cleanup of the KV logo, etc. 

I know that this next one looks like a picture of nothing, but it contains two items of interest.  The first is the balance spring, which Kari had just fitted with the central collet and cut to length.  Next step is to add the inner Grossman curve and outer Breguet overcoil.  Amazingly, he does this while referring to two scraps of paper, each with multiple curve sizes and shapes matched to the overall circumferance of the spring.  The result is a balance spring that "breathes" virtually concentrically rather than to one side or the other.  Kari explained that adjusting the Grossman curve also helps to re-poise the balance once the spring has been attached.  He mentioned that if the breathing is not concentric, the pivots bind ever so slightly in the jewels, causing wear and harming accuracy.  Later in the day, with this lesson in hand, we looked at another movement under the microscope and were clearly able to see the end shake on the balance pivot as it rotated in the jewel.  Amazing what you can see when you have been told what to look for.

The second item in the photo is a Guillaume balance in the making -- Kari had just cut the slots in it that morning.

Kari pulled out a double knife-edge tool that is used in poising and began to explain its use -- but then apparently noticed that my wife Lorrie was getting a bit tired, and cut short his talk, saying that he didn't want her to "die from watchmaking torture!"  A lovely guy, truly.

Before going to lunch, we did take a quick look at some of the finishing activities -- amazing to see the multiple steps, tools, the carefully-protected tin plate used for final polishing of screws, etc.  One example: a balance cock as it emerges from CNC and drilling vs. a near-finished item:

The picture isn't as crisp as I'd like, but you get the idea.  I was particularly surprised to see that the tapering conical part is not a separate piece, but is in fact rounded and finished from the square cross-section you see in the rough piece.  I don't think that I have the patience it would take to do that!

On the way out, we passed some of Kari's prized awards:

Kari went into the residence to change shoes, and emerged ready to walk to the nearby restaurant:

Back to that timing machine I mentioned earlier -- during the entire visit, Kari wore a prototype watch that he is developing for someone else.  There are two versions: one with a lever escapement (the one that was on the timing machine) and one with a "different" escapement (I know what it is, but don't know how much I should reveal).  Kari is wearing the "different" one as part of a durability test.  He told us that his atelier might also take on the commercial production of the piece (still to be determined) as part of load-balancing for his staff.  Even in prototype form, the watches are gorgeous -- the sunburst striping on the movements alone is enough to bring a tear to the eye.  You can see the watch on Kari's wrist in the above photo, but I'm pretty confident that you won't be able to read the brand name on the face...

Over a delicious lunch we learned several other things:

1. Kari's vision remains the development and manufacture of a small number of highest-quality pieces per year.  He will take on prototyping and production work for others to fill gaps between his introduction of his own new models and to smooth out glitches in the work flow that might result from delays from outside suppliers.  He's bringing more and more in-house, though -- it costs more, he said, but the delays have been driving him nuts.

2. He plans to produce no more than 50 pieces per year.  He will also not commit to sizable production runs of any single model -- he mentioned the Simplicity as a counter-example of what he's planning.

3. When Lorrie asked Kari how the downturn in the watch industry has affected him, he just smiled.  He has a 300-customer waiting list.  When I restated this as "300 people who have expressed interest," he quickly corrected it to "300 people who have tried to order a watch and remain on the waiting list."  Priority for future pieces will go to existing clients -- my guess, though, is that existing clients who pass up a few consecutive new introductions will have to join back up at the end of the queue.  Shoulda taken that Cal. 27 when I had the chance...

4. His next model may not be ready for Basel 2010.  He is adamant that he will not introduce an item until he can deliver the first pieces immediately -- drawing a contrast to "some others" who have announced watches and then not delivered for a long time, if at all.  He's too much of a gentleman to name names, but we know, right?  The new model will not be complicated -- he wants to ensure that reliability is of the highest order (perhaps thinking back to the Chronograph?).  The new model will also "share the design philosophy of the Observatoire" -- a very interesting tidbit that will help all of us to focus our speculation over the next months, I'm sure.  All of the above is, to me, consistent with good management of the Voutilainen brand -- there's Kari the person and Voutilainen the brand, and while there's high alignment there I do think that there are some considerations around the brand that go above and beyond.  (By the way, this like all opinions expressed in this article is mine alone, and all are subject to refutation!).

5.  Kari lives to work at the bench -- it's the thing that brings him joy.  We should not expect to see any Voutilainen product that does not have his personal labor involved.

6.  Kari has what I view as a quite sophisticated talent management model.  He hires a diverse group (nationality, sex, ethnicity, experience, etc.).  Every new person learns how to do every major operation, to gain an appreciation for what is involved and to ensure good teamwork later ("then, when you make a mistake, you can go openly to your colleague and say you know the trouble you have caused them, apologize, and retain an open working relationship").  Everyone understands how difficult the other person's job is.  Kari never hires friends or relatives.  He also said that he is extremely frank with his criticism -- "if it's not good enough I am not going to say that it is" -- and also expects (and apparently receives) blunt feedback himself.

7.  He followed the "crooked seconds hand" exchanges on our forum.  He did say that it is very difficult to make the seconds hand exactly straight due to its fineness, the fact that it is relatively malleable gold, and the large number of finishing operations, lacquering and dissolving adhesives, etc.  However, he did say at the end of the day, he works hard to ensure that the are straight!  (By the way, mine always was and still is).

9.  The two largest concentrations of KV clients are in Singapore and Northern California (San Francisco area).  He may have mentioned the total number of his clients, but I don't recall it -- we can probably take the total number of his watches, divide by 1.2, and be quite close, if anyone is really interested in knowing.

8.  Lorrie asked him how he found the movements for the Observatoire and the Cal. 27, and it turns out that my fantasy of old Swiss guys going through trunks in their attics furiously searching for Peseaux 260s wasn't that far off!  He found the first one through an acquaintance, and when he decided to make more Observatoires there was a "network" of movement collectors who gradually brought additional movements out of hiding.  He said that the flow of 260s on offer has slowed, but that in any case there will be no more Observatoires.  When Lorrie asked why, he went back to the Simplicity example, and also said that he felt that he owed it to his clients to keep the exclusivity of the product. 

I took that opening to ask how many Observatoires there will be by the end of production -- "as many as 50?"  Kari's reaction was immediate: "No, no -- many fewer than that."  I thought it best not to press the issue further, and don't know exactly what "many fewer" means, but the frequently heard estimate of between 35 and 40 may well be correct based on the vigorous response that Kari had to my question.  If I recall, someone here (CL?) has catalogued 23, and we now know that the total is 49 or fewer -- so, some additional information, but a bit of mystery remains!  I don't know what numbering scheme Kari uses -- the movement plate you can see in the earlier picture shows number 26024, mine is 2605x, and so on.

On the return walk, we passed by Kari's reserved parking spot at the old workshop:

And then back at the new atelier/residence, a fond farewell to our gracious host -- potentially hoping to see him again sometime not too far from now back here in California:

It should be no mystery as to what watch I'm wearing under that lilac sweater!

I hope that this was informative.  Many thanks to Kari, and to Lorrie (who suffered at the time from a terrific head cold).  As always, all errors and omissions are my responsibility -- and all comments welcomed!

Best,

Gary G 

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