Baltic Aquascaphe Dual-Crown 39mm

After escaped the hotly contested arena of fledgling "mircobrands" and breaking out into the big leagues, french based Baltic sometimes cop some flack for their divers feeling a bit... derivative. While nicely made, a lot of them looked very similar to pieces already on the market from other brands. I, for one, certainly thought this and when I started looking into adding a "super compressor" styled diver to my collection, I wrote off the Aquascaphe Dual Crown. That all changed after I handled one in person, and within a few minutes the credit card was out and I found myself at the end of my 6 month long journey hunting for my perfect dual crown diver. Let's find out why together.

The dial is a deep sunray blue, with printed indices and of course that inner rotating bezel. Baltic have resisted the urge to plaster the dial with text, keeping it pared back to just the name. The choice of font is legible and matches the overall aesthetic. Same goes for the printed indices; I was initially seeking something with applied indices instead, but in hindsight I think the combination of sunray dial, applied indices and internal bezel would have been a bit too much. This dial thrives on simplicity and legibility and I'm willing to admit I was wrong for writing off the Baltic for not having applied indices.

Same goes for the case. In photos on Baltics website, it looks very slab sided which may lead you to think it also wears as such. Thankfully this is not the case due to short lugs and a comfortable FKM strap. I find this watch very comfortable to wear, so much so it is currently my most worn watch this year! There are some nice touches in terms of finishing, such as helical brushing on the top of the case where it meets the curved, domed crystal and cross hatch pattern engraving on the crowns. The action of the crown controlling the bezel is incredibly smooth, more so than the one on the Seiko Alpinist, for instance, and feels very well made.

The watch feels very sturdy with tight tolerances. I've heard one reviewer say that the best made watches should feel like a single solid piece, like holding a smooth pebble in your hand. The Baltic passes this pebble test in my opinion, more so than most watches in my collection.

Thanks to excellent legibility, a focus on fine details and a comfortable wearing experience, I've found myself very happy as the proud owner of an Aquascaphe Dual Crown. It's a little on the pricier side compared to some of its competitors, with the rrp only including a rubber FKM strap. Baltic do offer a few different bracelets for this watch, but you have to purchase them as extras, which does sting a little when there are similarly specced watches out there that are both cheaper and include a bracelet as standard. However, I dont think many of them can match Baltic on build quality and given how uncommon dual crown divers are, that might just be the cost of entry in this case. I'll just let my photos of the watch do the talking instead.