Kari Voutilainen,

AHCI The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the Hardware register, register-level interface of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its Intel chip ...

(born in 1962) is a Finnish watchmaker residing in Môtiers,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Voutilainen is generally considered to be one of the greatest living watchmakers. Altogether ten watches by Voutilainen have been awarded

The Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...

(Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix).

Career

Voutilainen graduated from the Finnish School of Watchmaking in 1986, and later continued his studies at

WOSTEP WOSTEP, the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program, is an internationally recognized professional qualification in the maintenance and care of fine-quality watches. It was devised by the Centre Suisse de Formation et de Perfec ...

. After his studies Voutilainen worked for Parmigiani Mesure et Art du Temps between 1990 and 1999 restoring complicated and rare watches. Voutilainen also worked as a teacher at the WOSTEP between the years 1999-2002. Voutilainen started an independent watchmaking business in 2002, building a limited number of handmade

timekeeper A timekeeper is a person that measures the passage of time. They may have additional functions in sports and business. Description A timekeeper is a person who measures time with the assistance of a clock or a stopwatch. Functions Sports In ...

s. In 2005, he introduced the world's first decimal repeater sounding hours, ten-minute intervals and then minutes. In 2012 Voutilainen together with Andreas Strehler created the watch "Chapter III" for Maîtres du Temps. In 2013, Voutilainen began collaborating with Tatsuo Kitamura, head of the

Japanese lacquer is a Japanese craft with a wide range of fine and decorative arts, as lacquer has been used in '' urushi-e'', prints, and on a wide variety of objects from Buddha statues to ''bento'' boxes for food. The characteristic of Japanese lacquerwar ...

art studio Unryuan, and by 2022 had introduced several watches with dials decorated using traditional Japanese lacquer techniques. In 2021 Voutilainen together with a group of investors acquired watchmaking company Urban Jürgensen and was appointed as the CEO of the company.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Voutilainen, Kari Finnish watchmakers (people) 20th-century Finnish businesspeople Finnish expatriates in Switzerland 1962 births Living people 21st-century Finnish businesspeople People from Rovaniemi