New Finnish independent (photos)

[taura]

In a local watch exhibition two young watchmakers caught my eye with a prototype of their first piece. It had a straightforward approach to watchmaking with a classic design and most of the effort put into finishing. Afterwards I sent them some questions over email, and was invited to visit their workshop in Porvoo (near Helsinki, Finland). Below you can find some photos from my visit.

The guys have ambitious goals: doing as much as possible in-house and competing in the top tier of quality. However, they also have a very clear-headed approach, and the watch is a realistic first step on that path. I was impressed by their determination and attention to detail (imagine enthusiastic discussion on how to improve screw holes or the sides of hands). They are being mentored by one of the top guys of Voutilainen (not Kari himself), which must massively speed up the learning curve.

As for the watch itself, the movement base is a vintage Omega that’s been serviced and the bridges replaced with German silver ones, with thick hand-finished bevels and all-important interior angles. The dial is made of a single solid piece of 925 silver, laser engraved and then finished by hand. The hands are black polished and then heat-blued. The case is in stainless steel and relatively simple "Germanic" style, but well finished. They even make and finish some of the screws in-house. All in all, it’s an impressive effort for a first piece with a reasonable price (contact them for details, but it’s below 20k eur/usd).

As a curiosity, you can follow them making the watches via Twitch (more information at www.kortelavalta.com). It’ll be interesting to see how far they will go, and nice to see the Finnish watchmaking industry slowly growing.

[Ichiran]

Thanks for sharing! From the pics the finishing looks hand-polished. Is the movement based on Zenith 135?

[taura]

Originally Posted by Ichiran

Thanks for sharing! From the pics the finishing looks hand-polished. Is the movement based on Zenith 135?

Omega 266 I believe.

[brandrea]

Thank you taking us inside the work shop

[GB-man]

Pretty cool thanks for sharing.

[nicky77]

The watch looks cool, the face reminds me of the JLC sector dial.

[WatchEater666]

Yikes

[taura]

Originally Posted by nicky77

The watch looks cool, the face reminds me of the JLC sector dial.

There is a resemblance yes. The relatively small numerals also remind me of the standard 39mm Master Control.

Originally Posted by WatchEater666

Yikes

The sound of the credit card coming out of your wallet?

[agriculture&watches]

Nice
Thank you for sharing

[AEC]

Cool