Kaj Korpela was born in Sweden in 1982. From a very young age, he was drawn to manual activities, such as carpenting or taking apart and rebuilding mechanical objects. This interest he confirmed, when his older brother suggested he joins the Watchmaking School in Borensberg (which he did from 1999 to 2003). This decision proved to be exactly what he was looking for and he became very passionate about the art of watchmaking from the first day.
In the knowing that the options to enhance his skills as a watchmaker in Sweden were very limited, he accepted an offer to work for a small brand in the Zurich area in Switzerland and moved there only three days after graduating.
In 2005, he decided to further his education and joined the Wostep Refresher course. He found there the targeted complement to his skills and made long lasting friendships. He then got introduced thoroughly to complicated watches during his tenure in Ulysse Nardin, Le Locle, adding thereby more know-how to his bench.
Amongst other employments, the most notable in terms of inspiration was the one in Vianney Halter’s atelier. Though too short in his own eyes, Kaj considers that it is there he was introduced to a high level of artistic watchmaking, opening new channels for his ideas. Halter’s mind-set and his philosophy of trying to make watches as self-sufficiently as possible provided another precious input to Kaj’s determination/positioning as a watchmaker.
After only a year of employment at Halter’s atelier, Kaj was offered the opportunity to set up his own atelier and work as an independent in 2008, a chance he could not miss. He would then produce various types of time pieces for several watch brands, and be free to invest his spare time to continue researching the watchmaking approach that would be his own when the time would come. Now the time has come…