Kari Voutilainen

Kari Voutilainen, AHCI (born in 1962) is a Finnish watchmaker residing in Môtiers, Switzerland. Voutilainen is generally considered to be one of the greatest living watchmakers.^[1][2] Altogether ten watches by Voutilainen have been awarded The Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix).^[3]

Kari Voutilainen
Born	(1962-06-02) 2 June 1962 (age 63) Rovaniemi, Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Occupation	watchmaker
Website	http://www.voutilainen.ch/

Career

Voutilainen graduated from the Finnish School of Watchmaking in 1986, and later continued his studies at WOSTEP.^[4][5] After his studies Voutilainen worked for Parmigiani Mesure et Art du Temps between 1990 and 1999 restoring complicated and rare watches.^[4] Voutilainen also worked as a teacher at the WOSTEP between the years 1999-2002.^[6]

Voutilainen started an independent watchmaking business in 2002, building a limited number of handmade timekeepers.^[7][8] In 2005, he introduced the world's first decimal repeater sounding hours, ten-minute intervals and then minutes.^[9] In 2012 Voutilainen together with Andreas Strehler created the watch "Chapter III" for Maîtres du Temps.^[10]

In 2013, Voutilainen began collaborating with Tatsuo Kitamura, head of the Japanese lacquer art studio Unryuan, and by 2022 had introduced several watches with dials decorated using traditional Japanese lacquer techniques.^[11]

In 2021 Voutilainen together with a group of investors acquired watchmaking company Urban Jürgensen and was appointed as the CEO of the company.^[12]