The Toka, Finnish Indie Watchmaking Duo Kortela Valta’s Next Chapter

The life of an independent watchmaker, or a duo in this case, is hardly ever easy. Roope Kortela and Rene Valta, who you might know from the portrait we produced about a year ago, are pulling the covers off their next watch, but some challenges had to be overcome. When we first spoke with the two men, they already hinted at a follow-up watch for their fabulous Eka, and here it is! Packing a highly refined Grand Feu enamel dial in black, and fitted with a beautiful movement based on a vintage Omega Calibre 266 geartrain, with lots of work done by hand and in-house, this is the Toka!

Kortela Valta is one of the independent brands we discovered on Instagram, which seems very fitting since Roope and Rene refer to themselves as ‘The Livestreaming Watchmakers’. They regularly showcase their work on platforms like Twitch, but are also quite active on Instagram. Both graduates of the Finnish School of Watchmaking, which also gave us the likes of Kari Voutilainen and Stepan Sarpaneva, Roope and Rene found a mutual passion for creating the finest hand-finished timepiece made in Finland (currently, at least, as they stated in our interview).

For the Toka, the two once again relied on the geartrain of the calibre 266, which they also used for the Eka. However, as time progresses, so have the skills and expertise of Roope and Rene, and the Toka reveals. More and more components are painstakingly finished by hand when compared to the Eka, even those that are not visible. A genuinely impressive upgrade is the development of an in-house free-sprung balance wheel with platinum balancing weights, and a Breguet terminal curve on the Carl Haas balance spring, done in-house as well.

This new balance wheel is suspended under a redesigned German silver balance bridge with a large, black-polished plate. The large three-quarter plate is frosted, with polished jewel sinks, polished bevels, black-polished crown wheel and ratchet, and a brushed and polished barrel cover. Eagle-eyed viewers might recognise the inspiration for the concave, heat-annealed movement holding screws, and it’s a very nice detail, for sure. And don’t worry, Simon Brette gave the duo his thumbs-up. The finishing touch is a sunken, screwed-in plate with gold frosting and raised lettering that reveal the Kortela Valta name and the country of origin.

While the back is rather scrumptious to look at, there’s more action on the dial. Despite its restrained design, it’s full of character. The black or blue champlevé enamel dials are of Roope’s own design, made by Lundis Bleus, and honour the Finnish winter and summer. Black enamel is notoriously hard to perfect, as any imperfection in the manufacturing process instantly reveals itself in the finished product, and I guess the same can probably be said about blue (although lighter colours seem to be a touch less problematic). The railroad track on the outer perimeter wraps around a mix of Arabic numerals and baton hour markers, and makes way for the small seconds subdial at the bottom. The subtle sword-shaped hands are fully made and finished in-house, tying the front to the back rather nicely.

All this is set into a stainless steel case of 38.5mm in diameter and around 9mm in height. That makes it a touch slimmer than the Eka, and with a 47mm lug-to-lug, this will be an absolute joy on the wrist. Similar to its predecessor, the case is still refined and finished by hand after the base shape is machined by EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining). Naturally, there’s a sapphire crystal on both sides, and a KV-signed crown is used to adjust the time.

Only 12 will be made, which is a significant step up from the 8 Ekas. The Toka will be split into two runs of six pieces, and comes on a black ostrich leather strap that’s 20mm wide at the case, and tapers to a stainless steel pin buckle. The price is set at EUR 25,500 excluding VAT, and it’s available for pre-order now, with deliveries expected to commence later this year.

For more information, please visit KortelaValta.com.