Writing about watches for a living is a strange thing to do. When you’ve been doing it as long as I have, it’s very easy to forget just how odd a thing it is. Whenever I meet new people and they ask me what I do, my answer is regularly greeted with puzzlement.
“Watches?” they say. “Is there enough to say about watches to make a career out of it?”
Apparently, yes, but if we’re being honest, a lot of it is the same old stuff: technical specifications repackaged in an elegant manner, press release language translated for mass consumption, recycled platitudes and stock phrases that we’ve either picked up or coined over the years.
Every so often, however, there is something very important to say. Sometimes these messages are not even about a watch itself, but rather what a certain watch means for the brand producing it.
Baltic Hermétique - Credit WatchGecko
It is genuinely thrilling to watch the watchmaking landscape develop. Brands come and go. Icons are born and sometimes they die. The foundations of our passion occasionally shiver and shake, threatening to fall away beneath our feet before calm returns once more and the seismic shock retreats.
And once (and only once) there come days when certain brands come of age. There are watch releases that finally put everything an up-and-coming, “next big thing” has learned through the trials and tribulations of its early days. Having shouldered the pressures of being marked for greatness, a small, plucky independent unfurls to its full height and throws down the gauntlet to the rest.
This article is about the Baltic Hermétique
Yes, this is a watch release article. But it isn’t just that. It’s something of an ode to Baltic and how genuinely happy I am for the brand that the Hermétique exists. You see, I’ve followed Baltic since its very earliest days. I’ve had all the brand’s watches on my wrist. I’ve been impressed with the price-to-quality ratio from day one. I’ve regarded highly their advertising campaigns, B2B communication, and overall brand presentation. And, much as it pains me to say it, I’ve been left a little cold by the products thus far.
Baltic Hermétique - Credit WatchGecko
That was until this moment, however.
The Hermétique is not just a watch release for this brand in my opinion. It is the brand’s coming out party. It is a real, tangible achievement. Everything about this watch hangs together perfectly. It is a serious piece that doesn’t speak down to its audience at all. There are no airs and graces or deluded pretensions about this watch. It is a Hamilton Khaki Field killer and I mean that with the utmost respect. The Khaki Field has been a benchmark for top quality at a low price for years, but everybody knew (or thought we knew, at least) that the only reason Hamilton could do what it did with the Khaki Field was thanks to the Swatch Group’s incomparable internal economies of scale.
And yet here we are. Baltic has done it. The looks of the Hermétique (which is available in blue, beige, and burgundy, as well as the green pictured here) are obviously subjective, but in my opinion it is better looking that the Hamilton. What is less subjective, however, is the quality of certain components that push this watch over the edge. I’m talking namely about the lume.
Baltic Hermétique - Credit WatchGecko
Big chunks of LumiCast (solid luminous material) adorn the simple but deftly designed dial. The lume homogeny (the comparison of glow strength of the hands and the markings) is excellent. The layout is actually not very standard at all (with dots at the cardinal points and stick indexes for the intervening hours), but it’s so well executed it feels familiar.
The dial printing is minimalistic and doesn’t try to wow you with claims of high-performance technologies like “automatic”, “anti-magnetic”, or “Shock Resist”. It’s sensible. It’s to the point. There’s the model name and the water resistance (which is presented simply as “150m”).
The case back is closed and engraved with some forgivable fluff about the watch being assembled in France, what movement powers the watch (Miyota 9039 — very solid choice), and the water resistance again but this time presented as 15 atm.
Baltic Hermétique - Credit WatchGecko
I suppose it would be a little brutal of me to complain about this text, because I actually think it looks quite nice, but if I were pushed to be hyper-critical (because this watch is so good it deserves unforgiving analysis), I could maybe imagine this watch being even better without any engraving on the blessedly closed case back at all.
There is one interesting morsel of information on that case back that deserves a great deal of attention, however, and that is the integrated crown.
This is majestic.
While the case silhouette is extremely basic, the integration of the crown is not. It is charming, thoughtful, and superbly done. It takes a very simple case shape and elevates it. It transforms one’s opinion on the design process entirely. Had Baltic used a normal crown on this case, you would likely have heard analysts like me deriding them for laziness or off-the-shelf thinking, but the crown (even is it is simply a smart modification to a run-of-the-mill case) is the crowning glory of a watch release that has sent Baltic zipping up my own personal rankings, and placed the Hermétique at the top of my wish (or wrist) list.
An everyday hero.
With a 37 mm diameter, a compact 46 mm lug-to-lug measurement, and a cuff-friendly thickness of 10.8 mm (or 8.3 mm without the glass if you prefer, but I honestly don’t know anybody that wears their watch without the glass so you can probably ignore that stat), this is dreamy daily option. It’s lightweight (especially on the color-matched tropic straps in rubber), smart enough for work (especially in blue or green), and tough enough for play (thanks, in large part, to its integrated crown and 150 meter water resistance.
Better still, this watch, with its considerate 20 mm lugs, is an absolute strap monster. My personal favorite in the collection (and a watch I’m now determined to own) is the beige, but every single one of the four could find countless 1973 British Military Strap options to suit them.
Simply put, for around £500, you can get the best watch (in my opinion) from one of watchmaking’s rising stars, and wear it in almost any situation with confidence. If that’s not value for money, I don’t know what it.
- Brand: Baltic
- Model: Hermétique Tourer
- Price: €550 (UK Excluding taxes)
- Material: Stainless steel
- Movement: Miyota 9039
- Complications: Time only
- Crystal: Sapphire
- Dial: Green with Lumicast markings
- Size: 37 mm diameter
- When the reviewer would personally wear it: I’d wear it mostly in the wild. It’s a brilliant watch for walking thanks to its unobtrusive design, light weight, and low-light legibility.
- A friend we’d recommend it to first: Anyone buying their first decent watch that didn’t want to walk well-trodden paths.
- Best characteristics of the watch: Build quality.
- The worst characteristics of the watch: Case back engraving could probably go, but it’s otherwise exemplary on all fronts.
