Kari Voutilainen was born in 1966 in Lahti, Finland. He trained at the Jyväskylä Clock and Watch School in Finland before moving to Switzerland in 1989, where he worked successively at Wostok Europe, Parmigiani Fleurier, and the Watchmakers of Fleurier, building expertise across movement making, complications, and the decorative arts of dial-making. He established his independent atelier in Môtiers — the same small Neuchâtel village that houses the Bovet manufacture — in 2002.

Voutilainen produces between fifty and sixty watches per year, all made in his atelier with a small team, and is distinguished in independent watchmaking by an unusual equal emphasis on movement quality and dial artistry. His dials — in guillochéd silver, lacquer, enamel, and meteorite — are among the most celebrated in contemporary watchmaking, and he works closely with specialist dial ateliers and craftspeople to achieve surface qualities that larger brands cannot replicate at production scale. His movements are characterised by exceptional finishing: bridges and plates in German silver, hand-bevelled anglage, and côtes de Genève applied with the consistency of a much smaller output than his peers. The GMT-6 and the Vingt-8 (28) are considered benchmark references in independent collecting.

Voutilainen has received the Aiguille d'Or at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève — the award's highest honour — and is regularly cited by collectors and fellow watchmakers as one of the most complete practitioners currently working. He is also notable for his transparency about process, his willingness to teach, and his consistent argument that finishing quality is not a luxury but a responsibility. His watches are among the most difficult to acquire through normal channels, with waitlists extending several years.