"Handmade" is not a term that Kari Voutilainen takes lightly. Every component in his watches, from the bridges to the tiniest of screws, involves manual labor, may it be adjusted tolerances, polishing, angling and so on. Even each set of hands take almost two full days to make and the sublime guilloché dials are also made in-house.

After spending a decade restoring the finest horological creations of the past three centuries Kari Voutilainen became a rising star in the watchmaking scene in the early 2000s with his unique piece decimal minute repeaters that chimed every ten minutes and no longer the quarter hours contrary to all repeating wristwatches available at the time. These watches were soon followed by his Observatory models with a movement finish often compared to that of the great Philippe Dufour.

With the launch of the Vingt-8 line, which the present piece belongs to, Kari Voutilainen entered the exclusive club of artisans having fully developed an in-house movement. This apparently simple movement features a complex direct impulse escapement enabling a more constant distribution of energy. Furthermore, the extra-large balance allows fine regulation of the watch using a rare balance spring system with the exterior of the spring using a Breguet overcoil, while the internal curve uses the little known Grossmann curve.

The movement can be unabashedly described as a work of art for which every shape has been carefully thought out and executed, and every individual component has been painstakingly hand finished in Voutilainen’s ateliers in Môtiers, Switzerland. The present V-8R features a power reserve indicator which uses a conical differential system directly linked to the mainspring, visible through the caseback.

Made in only 25 pieces for Swiss watch retailer A l’Emeraude, the watch was originally offered with an black glossy dial, however the owner requested and obtained a superb blue dial featuring three different hand guilloché patterns. Voutilainen also created a new set of white gold satin brushed hands for optimal legibility specifically for this timepiece. The masculine 39mm platinum case sports Voutilainen’s signature tear drop lugs.

The possibility of going from the black dial to the blue and vice versa offers the new owner the opportunity of having two very different timepieces and a rare treat.