I walked through the village of Ste. Croix to Vianney's factory in the morning, passing the village pond.
I was going to have a quick chat with Philippe, then take the train back down the hill to Yverdon-les-Bains and get the next train to Twann to visit with Thomas Prescher. As I walked in, Philippe suggested a visit to another great Independent Watchmaker who lives and works in a village 20minutes away. Well I was very excited and eagerly accepted his offer of a ride, with the idea of taking the train from his village, rather than Ste. Croix.
Some familiar watchmaking locales!
With headed over the pass from Ste. Croix, and down into the Val de Travers where we find the villages of Buttes, Fleurier & Môtiers. Anticipating our visit, I snapped a couple of passing pics of directions and one of the Chateau over looking Fleurier, now housing Bovet I believe.
Up on the lower hillside:
Onwards and through the gate of the new Atelier and home of another supremely humble genius watchmaker, Kari Voutilainen.
The Nameplate says it all, artisan watchmaker of art:
We only had about 40 mins before my train left, and as they go only once an hour, I needed to make it. We were greeted at the door by Kari, who beckoned us in. Initially we went downstairs to see some of the machine shops, still being organised as Kari has recently completed a move of his workshop to this new location in a this lovely building, a former splendid residential home.
A colleague cleaning a CNC machine:
Working away on a lathe of some sort:
Various tools waiting to find permanent homes...
Passing through, I snapped a few pics, while Kari explained how they are able to make almost anything they need.
As we mounted the flights of stairs to take us up to the top, we were accosted by a fellow thrusting a microphone into Kari's face, wearing what can only be described as bicycling gear and large headphones attached to the microphone/digital recorder!
Apparently he did have an appointment, as Kari's dear wife acknowledged, after we were shown the office. Another great husband/wife team in the Independent watchmaking world. Jabbering away in French, this fellow peppered both Kari & Philippe with questions, occasionally pointing the offending mic. my way, Philippe translating hurriedly, as we tried to extricate ourselves, in order to finish the tour before I had to leave to catch the train from Môtiers to Twann.
Eventually after what seemed like half an hour, actually only 10 minutes, we headed up stairs to what would have been the attic/loft.
Here was the finishing and assembly dept. Only two watchmakers were in residence, the others off on summer holiday. A finisher was working away on Observatoire parts, with three parts kits of the basic Peseux 260 ready for his magic to transform them into the components suitable for a KV Observatoire.
Another watchmaker with Kari:
I spied two white gold pieces finished and appearing ready for shipping out to the fortunate new owners.
Kari kindly took the time to do this impromptu visit, without more than 30minutes advance warning, and I very much appreciate that. He did it with complete eagerness and only too happy to have both Philippe and I there.
Kari & I:
We concluded our tour and headed downstairs, again we were ambushed by the roving radio reporter, this time only 5 mins, with Kari, desperately trying to get us out of his snare! This reporter, I understand from Philippe, travels around by bike, interviewing all sorts of different Swiss industry professionals for his Swiss National radio broadcast that he does. One of the questions I was asked, "Am I here to find out about the secrets of the Swiss watchmaking world" I am still amused by this question, as I replied that there are no secrets between these Independent watchmakers, many of them being former colleagues at big watch houses or specialist complication movement makers, and are friends! The idea that it's all about secrets amuses me, as the myth of the Swiss watchmaker sitting in his chalet up in the Jura in the snow, making watches by himself by hand, doesn't exist, and never really did, particularly when referring to the big watchmaking companies. OK, one could apply that concept here to Kari, or Vianney etc. etc. but the fact is they all use machines and have a team of admittedly highly skilled artisans working alongside them to create these works of art that we love and appreciate so much. I think the majority of watch afficianado's and collector know this, so his question was amusing to me. Perhaps it comes from being Swiss, I don't know, anyway I hope my response was enlightening to whomever listens to his radio show in Switzerland! It's a big wide world out here.
I digress, Kari showed us the way out, we bid him a hurried farewell and dashed off to the Môtiers train station.
I thanked Philippe profusely for a fascinating 24hrs and boarded the train to Neuchatel. Down through the valley we went and I arrived in Neuchatel with 10minutes to wait for the local train to Twann.
More to come from Thomas and Peter, stay tuned...
