Commissioning a watch: My journey with the Kari Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II – Reprise
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Of course, I spent some time working on alternative ideas for my own watch. In the illustration below you can see the attached triangles for the five minute markers on the main time subdial, something that ultimately became one of the unique design features of my personal piece.
Early dial representation of the author’s unique Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II
At this point I’ve put together two versions in a photo of my Observatoire case to see what the clock might look like on my bedside table. You will see that by this point Voutilainen had already told us that he would insist that the night sky be blue rather than black or charcoal; In my opinion an inspired decision based on the look of the finished watch.
This comparison led me to request a two-tone dial when we submitted our final preferences to Kari in January 2011.
Author’s final design attempts, 2010
We were now in January 2011: almost a year has passed and it is time to look at the technical circuit diagrams of the proposed dials. In the blueprint below, you can see that all the chronograph seconds have dots on the outer chapter ring, that the railroad track is gone, and that the chronograph seconds are not flipped over (the things collectors care about!). Applied triangles can also be seen.
Schematic representation of the dial design, Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II
In the months that followed, I pursued an aspect that had fascinated me ever since I saw the case of Voutilainen’s Masterpiece 7: the idea of an engraved officer’s caseback.
I loved engraver Eddy Jaquet’s work on this watch and started looking for a suitable theme for him to address on my watch, eventually settling on the idea of Chronos, the Greek god of time.
I grabbed a bunch of Chronos pictures from the internet and sent them to Eddy. What we both liked is the sculpture by Ignaz Günther pictured below.
Chronos statue by Ignaz Gunther: inspiration for the unique engraving on the author’s watch
As the year progressed, we went back and forth as the planned completion date for our clocks in late summer grew ever closer due to sourcing issues with the dials. The delay gave me time to think about Jaquet’s first suggestion (see below).
Engraver Eddy Jaquet’s first design proposal for Chronos engraving
Hmmm. . . I felt like it was difficult to see the hourglass, and I also didn’t like how Chronos’ left wing was curled up. Could we try again? In fact, I really liked the next suggestion.
Final draft of the Chronos engraving by Eddy Jaquet
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