Juha Eskola
Juha Eskola is a Finnish independent watchmaker, born in Ostrobothnia, who works alone in his own workshop in Finland (Monochrome places him in Helsinki). He first studied marketing at the University of Turku, then applied to the Finnish School of Watchmaking in 2015 with the aim of becoming an independent watchmaker, graduating in 2018 ("independent watchmaking, or nothing", as he told Monochrome). He started with hand tools and prototypes and debuted in 2021 with his first handmade watch, the N1. Every watch carries his name on the dial and, by his account, takes well over 100 hours to make. No founding year is stated.
The N1 is a 41.7mm, 11mm-thick 316L steel watch built around the hand-wound Cal. 109, a heavily modified ETA 6497 with a moon phase complication, a hand-hammered German silver three-quarter plate bridge, black-polished screws, big polished bevels and a hand-engraved balance cock. The case was designed by him, 3D printed and then finished by lathe, file and sandpaper, with a hand-made brass dial, eleven hand-made applied hour markers and hands sawn and filed from steel and tempered to a caramel-gold colour. The dial reads "Leppävaara", after the district where the Finnish School of Watchmaking stands, and carries a Finn Made mark. N1 is no longer in production. Its 2024 successor, the N2, is a 37mm dress watch in 14K yellow gold or 316L steel on a hand-finished, hand-wound vintage Longines 30L with a black enamel subdial and 14K gold hands.
The N2 Moonphase, the "spiritual successor to N1", adds an in-house moon phase module to the Longines 30L (18,000 vph, 17 jewels, about 36 hours of power reserve) with a two-level "tuxedo" dial, a double moon at six o'clock in a hand-hammered German silver background, hand-engraved bridges, anglage, snailing and frosting, and a case with hand-hammered concave scallops. Monochrome reported prices of EUR 13,000 in steel and EUR 15,000 in 14K gold excluding VAT, with production limited to 2026. The brand site lists no prices and currently shows the N2 and N2 Moonphase as sold out; orders and unique pieces are handled by email or the contact form, with bespoke dial, numeral and bridge-engraving options offered.