Finland To India: Torsti Laine Brings Hand-Guilloché Watches To India Watch Weekend 2026

The independent watchmaking world operates on a different frequency than the rest of horology. No marketing campaigns, no brand ambassadors, no dealer networks spanning continents. Just watchmakers in small workshops, turning dials by hand on rose engines, finishing movements to standards most brands abandoned decades ago, and hoping the right collectors notice.

Torsti Laine has been operating in this space since 2014, when he won A. Lange & Söhne's F.A. Lange Watchmaking Excellence Award and promptly moved his family from Finland to Le Locle, Switzerland. A decade later, his watches remain scarce. You find them at a handful of specialized retailers in the United States and Europe. You see them occasionally on the wrists of collectors who know. And now, for the first time, you'll find them in India. India Watch Weekend 2026 on January 17th and 18th marks Laine's Indian debut, and the brand is bringing three models that span its current range: the P37, V38, and GG3. This isn't a test. This is Laine betting that India's collector base has reached the point where hand-turned guilloché dials and heavily finished movements find buyers.

The Guilloché Problem
Most watch brands stamp their dials. Some use industrial machines to create texture. A few use CNC equipment to simulate traditional guilloché patterns. Laine does none of this. Every guilloché dial the brand produces is turned by hand on an antique rose engine, pattern by pattern, taking hours to complete a single dial. The work is outsourced to specialist artisans, the same people creating dials for Voutilainen and other high-end independents. This creates a problem. Hand guilloché is expensive. It's slow. It requires skills few people possess anymore. And it doesn't photograph well. You need to see these dials in person, watch how light moves across the patterns, understand the depth created by layering different finishes. Which brings us back to why Laine coming to India matters.

The P37: Five Patterns, One Philosophy
The newest model making the trip is the P37, launched late last year and now arriving in India. At 37mm in diameter and 8mm thick, it's Laine's smallest watch, built around the legendary Peseux 7001 manual-wind movement. The base movement hasn't changed, still running at 3Hz with 42 hours of power reserve, but you wouldn't recognize it. Laine replaces the standard two-thirds bridge with a rose gold version featuring its own guilloché pattern. The balance cock and escape wheel cock get black polishing. The tungsten rotor receives hand engraving. What was a reliable but unremarkable movement becomes something you stare at through the sapphire caseback.

The dial options tell you everything about Laine's approach. Five different guilloché patterns, each named, each distinct. The Salmon Spider uses an angular web pattern with applied Breguet numerals in polished steel. Sky Blue Twill resembles fine fabric, minimal branding, clean execution. Ocean Blue Diamond features interlocking rhombi in three dimensions, white gold numerals and hands against blue. Silver Grain runs traditional rice grain guilloché with heat-blued steel throughout. And the Murasaki Flame, arguably the most Laine dial in the collection, uses a royal purple achieved with traditional Japanese dye and an undulating flame pattern that continues across the entire dial surface. Limited to 99 pieces total across all five dial variants, priced at 9,900 Swiss francs. First deliveries started in January 2025, which means India Watch Weekend 2026 represents one of the earliest opportunities to see these watches outside of Switzerland and select US retailers.

The V38: Micro-Rotor Elegance
Where the P37 uses manual winding and vintage proportions, the V38 takes a different approach. At 38mm and just 9mm thick, it runs a Vaucher VMF 5401 micro-rotor automatic movement. Vaucher supplies movements to Parmigiani, Hermès, and other established houses. What they deliver to Laine gets the full treatment. The movement arrives with Vaucher's highest level of finishing already applied. Circular graining, Côtes de Genève on the bridges, diamond-polished bevels. Laine adds hand engraving to the tungsten micro-rotor, creating a calligraphy-style decoration that matches the dial motifs. The hands are made in-house from steel bar stock, filed by hand to achieve their rounded profiles, then polished to mirror finish.

The V38 offers the most customization options in Laine's lineup. Dial configurations include triple guilloché, where three distinct patterns occupy different sections of the dial. A guilloché center with frosted outer ring. Meteorite inserts. Even something called Moonfrosting, which creates texture reminiscent of lunar surface under magnification. Colors range across the spectrum. Numerals can be rhodium or blued steel. Movement finishing comes in three styles: Classic, Signature, or Calligraphy, each dramatically changing the visual character of the caliber. Pricing starts at 9,400 Swiss francs for Moonfrosting and reaches 10,900 francs for triple guilloché variants. You order directly from Laine, specify every detail, wait several months, and receive signed documentation from the artisan who created your dial along with photographs of the process.

The GG3: Maximum Guilloché
GG stands for Gelidus Guilloché. Gelidus refers to the frosted finish Laine developed, inspired by Finnish snow and ice. The "3" indicates three customizable guilloché sections. This is the watch that made Laine's reputation among collectors who care about dial craft. The case measures 40.5mm in diameter and 11.3mm thick, built around Laine's LA18.1 hand-wound caliber. The movement uses a Unitas gear train as its foundation, but most structural components get replaced with parts manufactured and finished in-house. You get a choice of three movement decoration styles, three different guilloché pattern combinations labeled A, B, and C, and colors including blue, salmon, white silver, or custom options. Traditional patterns available include Clou de Paris, the finest weave, recommended for the small seconds subdial. Panier resembles basket weave. Flamme creates undulating waves that verge on psychedelic when executed in certain colors. Each dial section can run a different pattern, creating visual complexity that either captivates or overwhelms depending on your tolerance for decoration. The GG3 retails for 9,800 Swiss francs. Laine also produces GG1 and GG2 variants with fewer customizable sections at lower prices, but the GG3 represents the full expression of what hand guilloché can achieve on a wristwatch dial in 2026.

Why India, Why Now
Laine operates on word of mouth. Collectors discover the brand through forums, Instagram posts, the occasional article in specialized publications. Production runs small. Delivery times stretch months. This isn't a brand trying to hit volume targets or expand into new markets for growth's sake. But something has shifted in India's watch collecting landscape. Independent brands that were previously accessible only through grey market channels or international travel now find direct buyers. Collectors understand finishing levels, movement architecture, dial craft. They're willing to wait for the right piece rather than buying what's immediately available. India Watch Weekend 2026 gives Indian collectors their first chance to handle Laine watches in person. See how 37mm wears compared to 40.5mm. Compare dial patterns under consistent lighting. Understand what 8,000 to 11,000 Swiss francs buys when spent on a Finnish watchmaker working in Switzerland with hand-turned dials and heavily finished movements.