Gary G
3734
First photos -- Kari Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph II
Jan 21, 2013,17:56 PM
Greetings to all!
Well, the course of true love never did run smooth -- I was anticipating being able to post photos of this watch earlier, but the need for an adjustment meant that I had to wait a bit. But, now I have the profound pleasure of introducing the Kari Voutilainen Masterpiece Chronograph Series II!
Much more to post on these watches over the coming days and months, but for now I'll provide a very brief overview of the series and then introduce my personal piece. The Masterpiece Chronograph II is produced in a limited series of 10 numbered watches. Two are in PT, two in RG, one in SS, and the remaining five in WG. Our group of six enthusiasts from Northern California commissioned six of this series of ten watches in February of 2010, and have been actively involved in the fine points of customization of our individual watches over the past three years.
The movement architecture is based on the original Masterpiece Chronograph series, and adds a large date and moon phase display. Both minutes and date are semi-instantaneous jumping.
It's sneaking up on 3 am here in Switzerland and tomorrow/today is going to be a full day, so I'll just get on with a few photos! First, the dial side of my personal watch -- Rose Gold with a two tone "dark" dial:
Next, something quite special (at least to me): the officer case back, unique in its presence among the Chrono II series watches. The engraving is by the wonderful master Eddy Jaquet. Eddy is the one who did the engravings on some of Kari's earlier watches (including the Seven Daughters of Atlas on the Masterpiece 7 decimal repeater) and who has also done some of the movement engravings on PSM's new Renaissance minute repeater.
The engraving (as you Greek scholars will immediately note) is of Chronos, god of time -- who is also depicted as "father time" with his hourglass and scythe and who enters our collective consciousness in the US as he makes his ceremonial exit on New Year's Eve each year. I provided Eddy with some initial thoughts, and he turned them into a wonderful creation myth, with erupting lava and forming galaxies in the background:
With the caseback opened, we see the movement -- this watch of mine is the only one in the Chrono II series (and as far as I know, the only one in either Chrono series to date) to feature a rhodium plated (rather than gold plated) movement. Really pops with the RG case:
That's all for now! As noted above, you can expect more posts over the time to come as I'm able to photograph the other watches in the series -- I'll also endeavor to construct a post about the history of the series and our process of working with Kari to finalize the designs.
All the best,
Gary G
This message has been edited by Gary G on 2013-01-21 17:57:12 This message has been edited by Gary G on 2013-01-21 18:03:54