Sometimes watches just appear. In 20+ years of collecting it’s often the unplanned purchases that bring the most satisfaction. Usually, this is not completely blind, by that I mean the watch or brand would have already been familiar to me. Rather, these are purchases where I wasn’t actively chasing the watch or even considering it as a near-term purchase. But we crossed paths and….you guys know how it goes. Several months ago I picked up one such watch, the Laine Gelidus 2.

Torsti Laine graduated from the Finnish School of Watchmaking, won the 2014 Walter Lange Watchmaking Excellence Award, worked for A. Lange & Sohne, fellow countryman Kari Voutilainen, then set out on his own. The Gelidus is his 3rd watch, following the Classic Chronograph and 1817. It was the Lange award which initially flagged his name for me, then seeing his watches on forums and the wrists of some collector friends. So I was well primed.

A significant attraction for many in these small emerging Indies like Laine is the ability to have a direct dialogue with the watchmaker and the potential for customisation.

For the Gelidus this customisation at a basic level includes choices for hands, dial colour, dial markers and movement finish. The most basic dial choices have a sandblasted and circular grained finish (by hand) in a variety of colours like anthracite, blue, gold and others and also several pretty trippy hand guilloche choices and even lacquer dials.

The movement (a modified Unitas) has the same sandblasted finish in addition to elements you don’t see at this price point such as hand polished bridges, screw and jewel sinks and black polish screw heads.

My Laine Gelidus 2 has the anthracite frosted dial, the most subtle of his dials, a combination of Breguet numerals and sticks, syringe hands and rose gold frosted movement.