I first became attracted to the now ubiquitous “vintage inspired diver” by the Christopher Ward C65, which is of course shamelessly inspired by the Oris Divers 65 but the CW was half the price and I marginally preferred the design. Then I saw the well marketed pre-order for the Aquascaphe by French brand Baltic.

It looked good, cleaner design than CW, the domed rather than box crystal looked gorgeous, deep sunray blue dial gave more elegance whereas a simple full brushed case was a bit more utilitarian. But a few things made me hold back. It was the same money as the CW but it wasn’t Swiss Made and didn’t even have a Swiss movement. I was suffering from a mild watch snobbery affliction at the time. I’d overcome the need to own watches by major Swiss brands but still felt that two words on the dial saying Swiss Made gave some sort of guarantee of superiority.

So I didn’t buy the watch. Lots of other people did and they all seemed to love it. Baltic got more stock in, I hesitated again thinking they were still charging too much; they hadn’t even bothered designing a different case and were reusing the existing bicompax model case with a rotating bezel stuck on. Surely this must be a brand putting too great an emphasis on profit and not enough on great design to deserve my well earned cash. Many disagreed with me and it sold out in no time again.

Then I picked up the cheaper similarly specced Nemo, a collaboration by 2 very small brands, EMG and HkED and it got me over my fear of cheap Miyota movements. Marketing and the watch community kept bugging me with the Baltic Aquascaphe. So I kept my keys open for a decent deal and picked one up, used. Initial reaction was that it looked good, really good.

That sunburst blue dial has such depth and the crystal gives all the character of vintage plexi without any of the scuff dramas. The recycled case that irked me, well who cares, it works really well. Great proportions, nicely brushed all over for a no nonsense finish and the case back barely protrudes so it sits flush to the wrist. The beads of rice bracelet is very well executed, love the quick-change. Clasp a little stiff to open and close but secure so forgivable. Then it broke.

Fine on the wrist but stopped ticking within a couple of hours of taking off. No matter, less than a year old so a warranty claim was made. Great service by Baltic. Accepted the claim, paid all the postage to France and got it back to me within 5 weeks of the initial claim. Fixed the power reserve issue, but now the timing keeping was, in my still marginally snobbish opinion, horrendous, gaining about 30 secs a day. Now I know I have no need for a precise timekeeping machine on my wrist these days and I’d not be buying mid-range automatic watches if I did (10 quid Casio would do that better) but I can’t be doing with accuracy so bad I’d basically need to reset it daily; maybe a £100 homage could get away with that but not a £700 watch.

If I did accept I’d set it daily, the crown action would be far from a joy. It feels very delicate when unscrewed, almost a bit of wobble, and quite rough threading back in. Last grumble is the bezel. It’s okay, turns smoothly enough but there is a little back play and like the crown, just a touch of wobble. My cheaper Nemo by contrast keeps fantastic time and feels rock solid in both the crown and bezel.

So overall, I do still like the Baltic Aquascaphe, despite what feels like less than perfect execution on quality. It really does look fantastic and if you don’t mind slightly sketchy movement execution (hell, maybe I just got unlucky with mine or its prior owner was a less than scrupulous seller) then go for it. But for me, I have been left feeling more work has gone into creating something that will photograph nicely and get IG likes, rather something that you can just rely on, as a tool watch should. Sold it.