WristBuzz
Baltic Aquascaphe GMT MK-II: A Real GMT Movement and a Sharper Case for the Same Crowd
Baltic's cult diver goes back to the drawing board, swapping its old GMT trick for a true independent hour hand
213 articles · 3 videos found · page 1 of 8
Wristshot gallery from the Horlogeforum Baltic thread.
Champagne, blue, and grey join an updated case, making the Scalegraph Baltic's most refined chronograph yet
Baltic's cult diver goes back to the drawing board, swapping its old GMT trick for a true independent hour hand
WristBuzz
Baltic's cult diver goes back to the drawing board, swapping its old GMT trick for a true independent hour hand
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Baltic just made its cult-favorite Aquascaphe GMT a more capable travel watch with a flyer GMT, tougher case, and one unexpected change.
Monochrome
Baltic is giving its Aquascaphe GMT the MK-II treatment, and the good news is, it is more capable and accessible than before. The Aquascaphe MK-II got its update last year, and now the GMT diver gets the same sharper case design, but with a much bigger change inside. Introduced in 2020, the original Aquascaphe GMT […]
Teddy Baldassarre
The French microbrand introduces the Baltic Aquascaphe GMT MK-II with a revamped case, more water resistance, and a true GMT movement.
Hodinkee
What We Know Last year, we covered Baltic's relaunch of the Aquascaphe, their vintage-leaning traditional-style diver (not to be confused with their dual-crown version). That release came in several colors and two sizes. Now they're relaunching the Aquascaphe GMT as a new Mark II version. While the aesthetic changes are more subtle than on the diver, the changes under the hood are more substantial. The Aquascaphe GMT MK-II has a subtly redesigned case profile (39.5mm by 13.8mm, 316L stainless steel, with a 47mm lug-to-lug), with the most distinguishing feature being the new crown guards that make the case distinctly more modern. The rest of the case has been reworked (it is 0.5mm wider and 0.8mm thicker), with vertical brushing on the lugs and 200m water resistance. The watch still has a luminous 24-click GMT sapphire bidirectional bezel. The caseback engraving (which we've posted a picture of later in the story), on the other hand, is simplified from the globe design on the first version. What used to be three color variants is now four, all with glossy black dials and Super-LumiNova BGW9. One has a blue-and-light-blue bezel with light-blue dial text and a GMT hand. Another is a "Pepsi" style with red accents. The third has a blue-and-green bezel, and the last, the newest, is black and grey with orange accents. The hands and indices are a bit bolder and rounder. Inside the case, the brand has changed to a "flyer" Miyota 9075 GMT movement with a 42-hour power reserve. The ...
Video
You probably know by now that Time+Tide’s Watch Discovery Studios have always been about more than simply displaying watches. Over the last few years, we've shown that they’re places where collectors meet, brands...
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Compare the Bernhardt Captain and Baltic MR01 for vintage styling, dial detail, finishing, and wearability, and decide which one prioritizes character more.
Monochrome
The passion for watches has no borders, as we reiterated on multiple occasions. We have already covered several initiatives coming from the Emirates Watch Club, the Singapore Watch Club or the Qatar Watch Club. This time, though, it’s a special edition watch that comes from a slightly less obvious region of the world: Bangladesh. Created […]
Time+Tide
Baltic’s Heures du Monde “Horizon Line” Time+Tide Studio Edition pairs a forged carbon dial with a worldtimer complication.
Monochrome
Baltic Watches, the French indie brand founded by Etienne Malec in 2017, has transcended its status as a microbrand in less than ten years. Designed in Paris and powered by reliable, outsourced movements assembled in Besançon, France, Baltic’s success can be attributed to its retro-flavoured watches coupled with accessible prices. The flagship Aquascaphe Classic, a […]
Time+Tide
Over the past seven days, we’ve seen subtle updates to popular collections, such as the Baltic Aquascaphe, alongside limited editions created with fellow watch publication Hodinkee and collaborations that revive traditional crafts. Ming, in particular, successfully brings the old and the new together. There is plenty more on the menu, with several successful collaborations that … Continued
Video
This watch really surprised me, but not in the way I expected. You may remember, I’ve been after a worldtimer for a while, and in fact, I came very close to puling the trigger on a Patek 5130 at the start of the yea...
Hodinkee
Over the last ten years, Paris has emerged as a leading city worldwide in microbrand-style watchmaking—led by Serica and Baltic—but a lesser-known brand is making a case for entry into that conversation, and that brand is Laps. Founded in 2015 by Antonin Mercier, Laps built its name on graphic dials that were hand-assembled in limited editions using unconventional materials like wood, tobacco leaf, exotic skins, and archival prints. With its latest release, the brand steps away from the loud, design-forward quartz pieces that made its name and into something more restrained—an automatic watch built with subtle and balanced style. Paris is obviously known for its major fashion houses, institutions that have stood for centuries, but I come from a world of menswear, and especially over the last few years there's been a wave of smaller, standalone shops popping up alongside those institutions—Husbands, Rubirosa, De Bonne Facture, among others—and I'd argue the same divide is playing out in watches. Complementing the stalwarts are names like Baltic and Serica, and with their new Arche line, I think Laps can now enter that conversation too. Form and function always stay top of mind for me, and sometimes I struggle with watches that skew too far in one direction or the other. Perhaps like a pendulum, my own taste sways from one side to the other from time to time, but its natural resting point is the middle—which is exactly where the brand's latest release, the Arche,...
WatchRider
The Baltic Aquascaphe MK2 is getting its first date display. This is not a replacement for the clean no-date model and it is not a limited edition. Instead, Baltic has added “Date” as a new choice across the existing MK2 range, giving buyers a useful complication without changing the case size or thickness. That distinction matters because the Aquascaphe MK2 itself is not new. Baltic introduced the second-generation model in September 2025. The news at the end of July 2026 is that customers can now order it with a date window, with deliveries scheduled for the end of August. The date is available with all four current dial colours and both case sizes. The blue and green versions have glossy dials, while the grey and warm silver models use a more textured, grained finish. Baltic does not list separate traditional reference numbers for every combination; diameter, date and strap are selected when configuring the watch. A date window that respects the dial Adding a date to a carefully balanced dive-watch dial can easily create a mess. Baltic has taken the safer route by placing the window at six o’clock, directly above the 30-minute bezel marker. The frame is finely bevelled and the date disc is matched to the dial colour, so the display looks like part of the design rather than a white rectangle added at the last moment. The placement also preserves the vertical balance created by the applied Arabic 12. It replaces the round six o’clock marker, but it does not push t...
Time+Tide
Baltic just refreshed its signature diver with a discreet date window, while keeping its winning formula intact
Fratello
Good morning, and welcome to another Sunday Morning Showdown. This week, Seiko released three new models in its Presage Cocktail Time collection. With a 38.5mm diameter, they are smaller, feature a less in-your-face date window at 4:30, and come in three color options. All in all, it’s a nice new offering from Seiko at the […] Visit Sunday Morning Showdown: Seiko Presage Cocktail Time (38.5mm) Vs. Baltic HMS 002 to read the full article.
Worn & Wound
With the first half of 2026 in the books (seriously, how is already July?) we thought it would be a good time to check in with our writers to see what watches spoke to them this year. It’s been a busy year in terms of new releases, with major new novelties from the big brands dotting the calendar on a weekly basis even well past trade show season. But as always, our team looks to smaller makers (and more obscure references from the big guns) when it comes to considering the very best. As always, we want to know your favorites, so let us know in the comments what new 2026 releases were your favorites in the first six months of the year. Zach Kazan It feels like this has been an exceptional year for watches. As Zach Weiss and I were preparing to record a podcast on this very topic earlier this week, my list of watches to discuss as highlights for the first half of 2026 ballooned to a point that I had to start thinking about what to cut rather than how to scramble for a few more watches to talk about. That’s a position we’ve all been in from time to time with these lists, and having a surplus of good watches to consider is a better situation by far. That said, there’s one watch, to me, that’s a clear favorite, and that’s the collaboration between Baltic and SpaceOne, the Seconde Majeure. This is the best watch either brand has ever made, and a great example of the right way to do a collaboration. It doesn’t feel exactly like either brand, but a little like...
Video
For inquiries and collabs: twtw.mike@gmail.com
Time+Tide
Sometimes, small improvements are all it takes to turn a good watch into a great one. Baltic brings back the Scalegraph in the permanent collection in an array of colours, Sartory-Billard dedicates a SB04-E to the Time+Tide Studio in NY, and Grand Seiko brings the long-awaited bracelet updates to many of its staple, fan-favourite pieces. … Continued
WristBuzz
Champagne, blue, and grey join an updated case, making the Scalegraph Baltic's most refined chronograph yet
Two Broke Watch Snobs
Two vintage-inspired divers, two very different approaches. We compare the Squale Sub 37 Legend and Baltic Aquascaphe to see which one works better.
Teddy Baldassarre
The Microbrand’s retro-chronograph design is no longer just for limited editions.More
Monochrome
When the Paris-based brand Baltic released the Peter Auto Tricompax in 2022, it was well received by enthusiasts. The watch looked straight back at classic racing chronographs and carried a strong vintage feel. This 1960s-inspired limited-edition watch fit neatly into Baltic’s chronograph story, which began in 2017 with the neo-vintage Bicompax 001 and later became […]
Time+Tide
Baltic just updated its popular Scalegraph, introducing a revised dial in three colours, and an upgraded, redesigned case
Worn & Wound
Baltic expands their Scalegraph collection today with the launch of a pair of new sporty chronographs that the brand says will be part of their permanent collection. First introduced a year ago as a limited edition, this new iteration of the Scalegraph has a number of improvements that should add up to a more refined package overall. It’s also something of a return to the brand’s roots as a maker of vintage inspired sports watches, after getting more press as of late for dabbling in affordable haute horlogerie and watches defined by the blinding bling of lab grown diamonds. As a sports chrono, the aesthetic of the Scalegraph is about as classic as you can get. It has a traditional three register layout with a tachymeter bezel, beads of rice style bracelet, and screwdown pushers. It’s heavily racing inspired, and has the simple, classic case lines of many a familiar vintage sports watch. The stainless steel case is the same 39.5mm diameter as the original Scalegraph, but Baltic says the lugs are now wider, which should give the watch some additional presence on the wrist. Baltic has also replaced circular finishing on the top of the lugs with vertical brushing, which is certainly more reminiscent of the historic chronographs manufactured by Rolex, Universal Geneve, and others, that the Scalegraph is clearly emulating, at least somewhat. The Scalegraph is available in three new colorways: Champagne, Blue, and Grey. All have tan colored contrasting subdials at 3, 6,...
Hodinkee
I really didn't need the Baltic Heures du Monde, and there were numerous reasons why. I've become inextricably associated with my "Pepsi" GMT-Master II (I always kind of hoped I'd be "that guy" to be tied to a cool watch—be careful what you wish for, I guess), so much so that at our recent community meet-up, someone said they didn't recognize me without the Rolex on my wrist. I wear it most days, though I'm trying to break free of complacency since I do have a lot of other nice watches. But every time I travel, it's on my wrist as I step on the plane, so a worldtimer was just about the last thing I needed. And yet, together with my friend and our former Talking Watches guest, Adam Victor, I picked up a Heures du Monde in labradorite. There were three versions with different stones for the dial, and this specific model, with a darker, more muted color, felt most wearable and classic, so it felt like a good fit. We weren't the only ones who jumped on the opportunity, as they also sold out immediately, which meant my hands-on had to wait. Now, Baltic is taking pre-orders again, with the first deliveries slated for October. This was something they telegraphed coming during the initial release—the only difference is that the new ones aren't numbered out of 200, which means you can pick one up if you missed it the first time. So, why get one? Well, because. First of all, I'm under no illusions that everyone is lucky enough to get or afford a Rolex GMT. It was a dream of mine...
Worn & Wound
Last week was a big one for Baltic, as it saw the release of their collaboration with SpaceOne, the Seconde Majeure, which is easily one of our favorite watches of the year so far. With all the teases for that watch in the lead up to its release at the end of the week, you may have missed another Baltic launch that took place right before it. To celebrate the brand’s fourth consecutive year as the official timekeeper of the Tour Auto (the modern version of the classic Tour de France Automobile, which began all the way back in 1899) Baltic has released a limited edition rally timer, a combination stopwatch and dashclock, that in its own way is every bit as idiosyncratic as the Seconde Majeure. This of course is not the first time Baltic has released a limited edition for the Tour Auto (see our coverage of their 2024 and 2025 releases here and here), but it is the first time that release hasn’t included a wristwatch. The 2024 release did include a similar rally timer combo, but not as a standalone effort – it was bundled with a chronograph that surely would have been the main draw for most buyers. Here, Baltic is centering an unusual timing device, but one that is core to racing, much more than a wristwatch. The rally timer as conceived by Baltic consists of two separate instruments. First, a stopwatch, with a light blue dial, which is powered by a manually wound Hanhart caliber with flyback functionality. The flyback mechanism is particularly well suited to racing...
Time+Tide
A week marked by collaborations, we have a host of new releases that show working together is often the best way to do it.
Monochrome
Some of the best creations often result from the least expected encounters… However, when two radically different creative minds start to work together, nothing says that the alchemy will develop. More often than not, the connection doesn’t come to fruition. At first, there was seemingly no reason for entities like Baltic and SpaceOne to collaborate. […]
Time+Tide
Baltic and SpaceOne have united to produce a jump hour watch, blending Baltic's classic style with SpaceOne's unconventional character.
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