IntroducingThe Remarkable Voutilainen 28 'Kohan' Unique Piece

Every so often, you see artistry in watchmaking that makes you sit up and pay attention. This is one of those pieces, a unique commission called the Voutilainen 28 "Kohan" Unique Piece, developed by Voutilainen and executed in collaboration between artist Tatsuo Kitamura and a client, in celebration of that client's love for his wife. Leveraging Kitamura Studio's expertise in engraving and enameling, the brand created a unique illustration of Finnish heritage, featuring a dial that depicts an autumn view of Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland.

The artistry on the watch is rendered in a variety of techniques, requiring over a thousand hours of work. Voutilainen had previously informed me that one of the biggest issues with a project like this is the need to finish the watch as close to perfect as possible before sending parts across the world and back, and hoping that nothing happens in transit or, even worse, during construction.

The dial features hundreds of hand-cut shell pieces, including green turban and abalone, sorted by color, gleam, and shape. Kitamura Studio then used these pieces and hand-cut materials, such as fine gold, platinum, and colored lacquer, densely inlaid across urushi lacquer, applied layer over layer, with each piece hand-polished between layers for an amazing shine. There's also a deep, lacquered sky that shifts in the light between vivid blue with white clouds in direct sunlight and a deep, star-filled night sky in the shade. How they did it is a closely held secret not shared by the studio.

Skipping to the movement, there's even more amazing artistry here. While art on cases and casebacks is more common, Voutilainen is the only brand willing to decorate movements in this way this frequently. The movement features bridges and plates crafted from a blend of German silver and titanium, adorned with hand-applied urushi lacquer decoration utilizing saiei maki-e. The ratchet for the mainspring has a depiction of the leaves of Finland's national tree, the silver birch, in its autumn gold color. This is done with a combination of cut sheets of gold, shells, deep blue urushi lacquer, and gold powder. 

The case also has a finely engraved map of Finland, the birthday of the collector's wife, a bear paw print (Finland's national animal), and the crown is set with granite (Finland's national stone) with black and red hues. One of the most amusing and unusual inclusions is the power reserve indicator shaped and marked like a Vichy water bottle (which, I presume, must be meaningful to the couple in some way).

The movement itself is a unique in-house movement with double-direct impulse that was designed and constructed in the Voutilainen workshop. This features Voutilainen's quintessential large balance (13.5mm diameter), with a balance spring featuring a Phillips terminal curve and Grossman interior curve, in a free-sprung balance that beats at 2.5Hz, offering 65 hours of power reserve. The case itself measures 37mm, although its thickness is not specified, and is made of white gold, crafted in-house.

The artistry continues on the inside of the officer's caseback. There's a beautiful illustration of lily of the valley flowers (Finland's national flower) and two Holly Blue butterflies (Finland's national butterfly) with their wings open and looking for nectar from the flowers. These were designed to shift in the light when the caseback is opened.

Finally, on the back of the watch, is a hand-engraved and enameled scene of a seven-spot ladybird (ladybug, for the Americans) resting on a silver birch tree. As a whole, it seems that every single representation of the client's love of his wife and his home country was considered. It's an incredible feat of artistry, and I think a pleasure that Voutilainen's client allowed us to see the work they did.

In my mind, there are three "segments" where Voutilainen excels. One is with creative mechanical complication like his Masterpiece series or even the recent collaboration with Louis Vuitton (shown below). The second is "sporty" interpretations of independent watchmaking, like the 28Sport or 28TI (where clients have to question if they'd rather see Voutilainen's classic movement at the forefront or a quintessential Voutilainen dial). However, for all my love of Comblemine's guilloché, my growing favorite representation of Voutilainen's work is the collaborative pieces with Tatsuo Kitamura and Kitamura Studio.

To do the latter, you need both a thoughtful and open-minded client and a talented artist to envision the concept. One critique I sometimes make about Voutilainen is that the brand's incredible openness to custom pieces sometimes results in unique examples that could have been improved had the brand simply said "no" to some of the ideas customers presented. This is similar to the critique often made regarding the now-defunct Cartier NSO program. However, I've never seen a piece from Kitamura that has gone wrong—in fact, each watch furthers my love of their creativity and craftsmanship.  

When you examine a close-up of the dial, the artistry is fairly self-explanatory. The combination of techniques creates a gorgeous array of textures that adds both physical dimensionality and perceived depth to the scene. In particular, the use of kirigai (cut shells of the green turban) and awabi-gai (abalone shell from New Zealand) in stratified layers forms the reflections of the water on Lake Saimaa. Materials that took a more geographic sunburst form on the brand's Ji-Ku piece in 2022 are used in an incredibly evocative form here. While there are certain aspects of the color palette (or the granite crown) that I would have done differently, it's not a watch for me, so I'm sure the client is incredibly happy with the watch.

Brand: Voutilainen
Model: 28 'Kohan' Unique Piece
Reference Number: 218RSV

Diameter: 37mm
Thickness: Not provided
Case Material: White gold
Dial Color: Unique dial hand-made and decorated by the Japanese studio Kitamura
Indexes: Printed
Lume: None
Water Resistance: Not provided
Strap/Bracelet: Hand-sewn green crocodile strap

Caliber: Unique Caliber 218RSV
Functions: Hours, minutes, power reserve
Diameter: 30mm
Power Reserve: 65 hours
Winding: Manual-winding
Frequency: 2.5 Hz
Jewels: 30
Chronometer Certified: No
Additional Details: 13.5mm balance wheel

Price: Not given
Availability: None
Limited Edition: Unique piece

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