The maker

I am Janne Aaltonen, a 29 year old professional artisan metalworker and a dual graduate of the finnish school of watchmaking, the man behind the Vigrid Mechanics® brand. I have also been involved with ornithological surveys of the natural history museum of the university of helsinki in the tavastia region for almost 20 years.

I have always been interested in creating things with my hands.  I have been told that I was picking up hammers and other tools before I could walk at my fathers wood workshop, and I have been using tools like angle grinder and MIG-welder before I was ten years old.

At sixteen I entered a vocational school in Riihimäki to study electronics and graduated as an industrial automation electrician in 2009 from Riihimäen ammattioppilaitos.

In 2010 after working in electricians profession for a couple of times in different companies I decided to study a bit more and applied for a metal artisan’s education in Pirkanmaan ammattioppilaitos and in 2012 I graduated as a silversmith artisan.

Allthough I was a silversmith by my new profession I was employed as a blacksmith metal fabricator and welder in Sastamala, only 2 weeks after my graduation in 2012.

After working as a blacksmith for over a year I decided to give student life a one more chance and started to chase my childhood dream and applied for watchmakers education in finnish school of watchmaking and was accepted as a micromechanic student in 2014.

since I started school I have been employed in a high-tech metalworking prototype company KTS-mekano as a manual machinist, welder and prototype developer.

In between these schools I have worked on all sorts of jobs, from large construction sites to electrical maintenance units in large industrial complexes to building service engineering.

Currently as well as making watches I am employed at Bluefors Oy as a wiring technician.

if you have any questions regarding anything on this site or possible comissions, leave a comment below, or contact me in Facebook

Vigrid Mechanics is also in facebook