Baltic is a microbrand that was formed a few years ago. They have been getting a lot of attention recently for a variety of their watch models. With that said, let’s take some measurements.

Width: 39.3mm

Lug-to-lug: 46.8mm

Thickness: 13.1mm

Lug width: 20mm

It offers 200 meters of water resistance.

The watch case is made of bronze, specifically the copper-aluminum alloy CuAl8. The crown is signed and has three positions. In position 0 the watch crown is screwed down and maximum water resistance is achieved. In position one the watch can be wound. In position two the watch hacks and the time can be set. Screwing the crown back in isn’t particularly comfortable, in part due to the sharpness of the crown and the pressure needed for that step, whereas it is perfectly comfortable to wind or set the time with.

Baltic has gone with a brown fumé dial, which starts lightest at the center and transitions to black as you approach the chapter ring. Arabic hour markers are at the thee, six, nine, and 12 o’clock positions with the remaining hours marked out with circles and each minute with an indice closer to the edge. The bezel insert is sapphire and is black, which I think complements the fumé dial transition while providing a nice visual break to the bronze case. The bezel offers good unidirectional action with minimal backplay. All markings are in a warm biege. The bezel markings, all hour markings, and the hands (including the lollipop seconds hand) feature lume. I normally find these beige fauxtina look offputting in an artificially vintage way but in some instances, such as this, I think it works because it compliments the watch colors rather than existing solely for the sake of looking old, but your mileage may vary on that. The Baltic brand name exists below the 12 o’clock position and above the 6 o’clock position is the Aquascaphe label along with the water resistance.

The watch features a closed caseback, which is in steel likely to prevent skin irritation or discoloration on the back of the hand. Under this rests the Miyota Caliber 9039. This is an automatic movement wound via a unidirectional rotor, it beats at 4 Hertz, has 24 jewels, and offers approximately 42 hours of power reserve. Miyota claims an accuracy of -10 to +30 seconds per day.

Putting this watch on my timegrapher, I get an average across all six positions of +4.67 seconds per day. The range of readings were -4 seconds per day to +13 seconds per day.

My overall thoughts:

The positives:

• Well balanced dial

• Comfortable dimensions

• Good bezel action

The negatives:

• Crown is too sharp

• Cheap strap

This watch is currently 625 Euros on Baltic’s website. Overall, I think this is a good watch to consider if you are interested in a bronze watch and favor the aluminum alloy variants. My negatives are relatively minor. The strap is understandable for the price point. I don’t have a lot of tropic strap experience and I’ve so far yet to find one I really like to wear (though I do like the visuals, including on this one). If a microbrand is going to save money somewhere I am glad it is the strap. The crown negative is a bit more disappointing. When I first got the watch my crown was very hard to screw back down; it would feel like I had it in place and then it would spin a bit more. I hit the threads with a toothbrush and there must have been some debris contaminating those threads because it got considerably easier to screw down. I’d say the effort is about on par with what I’ve experienced with the Orient Kanno, another inexpensive watch. But this one is a less pleasant experience because the crown is sharper. Repeated testing of the screw-down aspect quickly caused my thumb to hurt and this is one of the worst screw-down comfort levels I have had on any watch ever. Crown use for hand-winding and time-setting is fine, it’s really just screwing the crown back in. Not a deal-breaker for me but a disappointment.

The rest of the watch is positive. I think this vintage throwback look is extremely well executed from the bezel to the dial colors. It all works really well with the bronze case. The bezel feels a lot better than other dive watches I’ve tried around this price point, much more like higher end dive watches I’ve handled.