I left Neuchâtel at around 10 o’clock on Friday morning to drive up the mountain to La Chaux-de-Fonds. Torsti had moved his atelier earlier this year from La Locle, where I had last visited him in the summer of 2022. He has now gained much room for the work they are doing and this will allow for expansion in the future.

The first machine I saw was a straight line engine turning machine he purchased from Josh Shapiro in LA. It was amusing to see that it was made in La Chaud-de-Fonds in 1914, so it has come back to work in the town that it was made in!

The Straight Line engine for guilloche work.

I love that they dated these old machines. Historical significance is always fascinating.

Torsti now has three CNC machines. These are used for repetitive precision parts i.e. wheels and pinions, and the main plates are able to be produced on the new machine, the Haas from California, which, as Torsti says, is easier to program than a machine from Japan, let’s just say that comes with a 12 inch thick instruction booklet in Japanese!

The Gelidus manual wind caliber with the wheel train architecture of a Unitas 6498, is made inhouse on these remarkable precision machines. This enables Torsti to make the volume he does, while still maintaining the accuracy required for essentials like a mainplate. This manufacturing ability is only viable with CNC machines for the raw materials oif brass and steel to be turned into mainplates, bridges and cocks, prior to all the hand finishing that is required in order to make the caliber look as beautiful and tasty as he does.

Galvanic plating area away from the assembly and hand finishing!

With the galvanic plating set up, he has many many colors that are able to be produced for the dials and Torsti has several shall bow and lays foot parts. The V38 features the Vaucher 5401 Micro Rotor caliber, with Torsti’s engraved logo on the Tungsten rotor with gold plating. It has the highest level of finishing that can be done from the Vaucher manufactory, which features some hand bevelling of the bridges and Geneva stripes.

The top grade Vaucher caliber with his designed gold plated Tungsten rotor

Several dials contained meteorite with a variety of colors applied. His creativity when it comes to dial options is vast and as a client, one can ask for all sorts of variations on the theme. Torsti is usually willing and able to create tasteful dials. I don’t think he would do “anything” but certainly within reason and as long as it resembles his classic styling parameters.

A perfect example of a custom guilloche and colored frosted outer dial with Eastern Arabic numerals.

Another custom color dial for a G3 model

The Lovely V38 had a stunning Metiorite galvanically blued center, together with the lovely Breguet polished steel hands

The moon frosting on the G3 is an amazing surface and can take many different colors to give options. I was inspired by these two amazing watches below that were just completed and going out shortly to eager clients.

For stock I typically choose what I love, so the V38 with a blue triple guilloche dial and Breguet numerals got the nod, I also ordered another piece as well, a Gelidus 3 featuring a stunning dial blue guilloche center and silver frosted outer sector with Breguet numerals. These will show up next year probably around May-June time. It is worth mentioning, that the G3 I ordered will arrive with the added option of black polished escape and balance wheel cocks. This I find the small up charge a no-brainer for a visually huge difference. Knowing how difficult it is to black polish larger steel parts so that they are perfectly done to 10x magnification, makes for an easy choice for me.

The watch at the top of this image has the black polished escape and balance wheel cocks, the lower has the straight grained option.

It was pleasure to see Torsti’s new atelier and get a feel for where he wants to go with his watchmaking. We discussed future projects and I’m thrilled to be able to bring his micro-mechanical artistry to my clients.

Torsti’s bench for final assembly, with the Positive pressure mechanism above to aid in keeping dust from the insides of watches!

I bid Torsti farewell and headed back down the hill to Neuchâtel. Another great visit to a highly talented and dedicated artisanal independent watchmaker, whose work I have admired and supported now for six years. It was back in Nov. 2017 I received my first Laine watch, an 1817 model with a white lacquer Roman numeral dial and his first crack at a highly modifed and hand finished caliber based on the venerable 6498 architecture. It was a lovely watch and very fairly priced, so much so, that I paid his retail asking price as I felt his work was underpriced for what I could determine. I was very happy with that watch back then. As his work improved and he went to his his own case and the use of hand guilloche dials and the the current styles, I realized I could let that initial watch go to another home, while I waited to figure out what of the current collection appeals to me. I’ve still to decide! We shall see if one of the two I ordered for stock remains “unsold” long enough for me to fall for it.