Baltic Aquascaphe Review: The Microbrand's Cult-Classic Diver
A forerunner of both the rise of microbrands and the ongoing revival of France’s watchmaking industry here in the 21st Century, Baltic Watches emerged on the scene in 2017, originally as a Kickstarter project. Founder Étienne Malec discovered the inspiration for his watchmaking enterprise in his father’s watch collection and named the company in honor of his father’s Polish roots, after the sea off the country’s northern coast. The goal from the start, according to Malec, was to produce “timeless pieces, of the highest quality, for fair prices,” and most would agree that Baltic has delivered on this mission statement. Baltic watches are all assembled in a workshop in Besançon, France, the nation’s historical cradle of watchmaking, and evoke vintage timepieces like the ones Malec’s father collected and extensively catalogued in his journals. Here we will look at the Baltic Aquascaphe, one of their most recognizable watches. The first Baltic watches were the three-hand HMS 001 model, with a Japanese Miyota caliber, and the hand-wound Bicompax 001 chronograph, with the Chinese Seagull ST19 movement. While both these watches were successful, and put Baltic on its path to fan-favorite microbrand status, the small company has since become best known for its Aquascaphe series of dive watches. The Aquascaphe, which was launched in 2018, takes its design inspiration from early “skin diver” watches of the 1950s and ‘60s, with no small amount of influence from...
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