Incoming Gelidus from Laine Watches

Feb 07, 2019,22:40 PM
 

Friends,


My fellow purist and I are excited to share our passion of Laine watches to this community.  My dear friend and I started a journey with Torsti Laine to co-design bespoke dials that we always wanted on a time-only piece.  

Why Torsti? We liked the dial work he was doing, his openness to creating new dials and allowing our input, and we are big fans of the winners of the Lange Watchmaking Award. Torsti is the winner from 2014.

Laine is a humble watchmaker based out of Le Locle, Switzerland and along with the Lange award, he's a graduate of the Finnish school of watchmaking and he's worked alongside with Kari Voutilainen. You can see a bit of Kari's influence in his work.

So which dials to choose? Well, I could not pick - so I ordered 2!

The first was inspired by some of my favorite vintage Patek dials, the 12 dot 2 dot 4 dial layout.  The yellow gold fume on this dial is absolutely gorgeous and with the grainy texture this is a unique offering amongst the sea of watches out there.  I truly think it is the best fume dial out there. I simply have not seen a YG fume dial with this grainy texture!  This dial is made entirely in-house and by Laine himself, and is sand blasted and circular grained by hand. 

Here is a "glamour shot" of my actual watch.




The case is stainless steel and sized at 40.5mm with frosted edges. The manual wind movement is a delight to look at, and laid out well. As with Keaton Myrick and Pascal Coyon and others, the movement takes inspiration from the Unitas base, making it quite robust. There are hundreds of ways to make such a movement and I am a big fan of how Torsti made his. The movement is red gold plated with hardened and tempered steel bridges for balance wheel and the escapement wheel.  He has different plating options to choose from, but the RG plating was the most striking  to me.  Screw and jewel sinks and bridge chamfers have been polished by hand with Black polish on screw heads, adding a nice artisanal touch to the movement. 






The second dial I chose was one I always wanted - a "partial roman dial" with only the numerals XII - III - IX. And along with his great in house fume dials, he mades a lovely almost grainy single color dials. I picked blue.  Laine and I went through a few iterations on whether to use hour dots or index sticks, but in the end I was happy with the hour sticks.  I love how the grainy blue just pops, and with the hand made blue strap, that is a killer combo for anybody who is into blue dials.





Overall, I am pleased with the journey to have built a custom watch with Laine and my good friend.  It is such a fun process to design a watch to fit my preferences as well as receive a top quality independent piece in the process.  I will receive the watch soon and my next post will have some wrist shots to share with all of you! A big thank you for Torsti Laine for doing what he does - spectacular made to order watches that one can customize in a way that usually means the price is beyond reach, all for a reasonable price tag. And dealing with Torsti is a real pleasure, too. 

Let me know what you think, love to hear your comments.


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yes exactly!

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 8th, 2019-11:09
i don't know any other independent who will give you this type quality of finishing and customization at his price point. true value!

Thank you for your thoughts

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 8th, 2019-07:06
the plus is the in-house dial, which some independents don't do. And the movement well finished, but the the process of making a bespoke dial is a positive experience!

Congratulations for your excellent choice of an Independent

 
 By: BjoernM21 : February 7th, 2019-23:58
Torsti Laine is not only a very accomodating person, but also a clever watchmaker. He found a way to offer a combination of in-house produced parts (he has his own CNC-mill), hand-crafted decorations and parts from sub-contractors to offer unique watches ...  

thanks for sharing Bjorn !

 
 By: mahesh : February 8th, 2019-07:31
incredible work...esp. i love the domed sapphire

Thx Björn. This response is so good its worthy of a seperate thread it's that good!

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 8th, 2019-11:57
I think you made a key point in noting that in order to deliver a fair price, you have to innovate a way to build movement parts in-house without incurring a ton of cost. I think Laine has found an interesting niche to provide a product where you recieve ... 

Thanks for your extra info my friend .

 
 By: Watchonthewrists : February 9th, 2019-11:38
Would love to see the watches in person one day

Big Congratulations!

 
 By: andrewluff : February 8th, 2019-01:29
Wow love your new baby and especially with that blue dial!! Really striking! Which dial are you having fitted? Can't wait to see the pictures when it arrives. Cheers Andrew

Thanks Andrew

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-05:21
I plan on fitting with the fume dial as a starter! Love the vintage look. Will send more pics upon arrival!

Fantastic!

 
 By: Bounce781 : February 8th, 2019-02:22
Must confess I didn’t know about this watchmaker. Fabulous movement and dials. Congrats

Thanks bounce

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-05:24
Glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully will see more Laine watch threads in the future

wow...i didn't know this watch maker - thanks for sharing !

 
 By: mahesh : February 8th, 2019-07:34
i like the first dial style but in blue or silver - would be damn good one !! thanks again. Best, mahesh.,

Best part mahesh

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-05:26
Is you can make a silver or blue dial with the vintage layout as part of the experience. Thank you!

My pleasure! [nt]

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-05:27

I’ve had my eye on Laine for sometime but didn’t like the

 
 By: alex : February 9th, 2019-01:00
cases, his new case design , like on your watch is great! Love the dials, congrats

Agreed Alex

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-05:29
He’s reworked the dial movement case with open syringe hands as a new offering that works well for me

Thank you for sharing!

 
 By: jleno : February 9th, 2019-07:31
I never heard of this brand, but the watches seem like incredible value.

J your welcome!

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-13:44
Indeed great value and high quality independent!

Great looking watches 👌🏻

 
 By: Watchonthewrists : February 9th, 2019-11:36
I have been following them for a while on IG and would love to see one in person soon . Congrats with your great choices . Looking forward to see more pics

Thank you!!

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 9th, 2019-13:47
Will definitely post more pics when I receive it. If you ever in true NYC/NJ area I’d be happy to meet up to show the Laine in person if greatly interested. -Eric

How thick are the watches? [nt]

 
 By: Euroasianstar : February 13th, 2019-15:59

11.2mm [nt]

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 14th, 2019-05:59

Re-read your post again.

 
 By: Euroasianstar : February 18th, 2019-20:23
Wonderful watch. Great unique features. What options and choices did you and Torsti discuss during the design phase?

Hey there are several options

 
 By: MoonWatchMan : February 19th, 2019-20:50
The obvious one is choosing which dial you'd like to do from the designs he has in stock versus customizing to a certain layout and dial layout that you like. Second is choosing the finishing of the movement there are several options from a YG, RG bridge ... 

Thanks a lot. Very helpful! [nt]

 
 By: Euroasianstar : February 21st, 2019-11:42