Born from his late father’s mid-century watch collection, Etienne Malec founded Baltic in 2016 following a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign. Watch enthusiasts caught on right away that the French microbrand was incredibly thoughtful about each element of its designs, and without hiking up prices. Kickstarter watch brands come and go, but these guys were different.
Baltic has finally entered the world of worldtimers, and the Heures du Monde is no different than the likes of the Aquascaphe or MR01, except now it can accompany you on your global travels.
A Clever Workaround
The Heures du Monde isn’t a true mechanical worldtimer in the classical sense, and Baltic isn’t hiding that. Rather than engineering an entirely new complication that would have sent the price well north of its current $1,495, Baltic repurposed an existing GMT architecture to replicate the worldtimer experience. The result is a transparent 24-hour rotating disc mounted over the dial, driven by the GMT function of the Soprod C125 automatic movement.
Rotating once per day, the disc matches up with a ceramic bezel that’s been engraved with cities from 24 time zones around the world. At a single glance, you can know the time in both Denver and Bangkok. The disc’s arrow at 6 o’clock acts as your home time anchor. The bezel cities are also lumed with Super-LumiNova BGW9 and glow blue at night. However, it has 120-click unidirection function instead, so adjusting between each city might require some extra attention.
Stone Cold Serious
What sets the Heures du Monde apart visually are the three stone dial options: blue Sodalite, gray Labradorite, and orange Tiger’s Eye, cut from a natural stone. Baltic has always had a strong design sensibility, but these dials are somewhat unprecedented at this price point. Sitting under the double-domed sapphire crystal, there’s no seconds hand, but the hour and minutes are given the beveled sword hands lumed with white Super-LumiNova, moving around a simple dash hour track.
Housed inside the 37mm stainless steel case with 100m water resistance is the Soprod C125, running at 4Hz with a 42-hour power reserve. Lastly, the watches come on either Italian calf leather straps, a beads-of-rice bracelet, or a flat-link steel bracelet.
Spec Sheet
Model: Baltic Heures du Monde Worldtimer
Case Material: 316L Stainless Steel
Case Size: 37mm
Case Thickness: 11.3mm (9.3mm without crystal)
Lug-to-Lug: 45mm
Movement: Soprod C125 automatic
Crystal: Double-domed sapphire with internal AR coating
Bezel: Ceramic, 120-click unidirectional
Lume: Super-LumiNova BGW9 (hands, markers, bezel)
Water Resistance: 100m
Strap Options: Italian calf leather; beads-of-rice bracelet; flat-link steel bracelet
Limited Edition: 200 pieces per dial variant, individually numbered
Pricing & Availability
The Baltic Heures du Monde is available now through Baltic’s website, starting at $1,495 on leather or $1,560 on either of the two steel bracelet options. Each of the three stone dial variants is limited to 200 numbered pieces before transitioning to permanent production at a later date.
Recap
Baltic Heures du Monde Worldtimer
Baltic’s new Heures du Monde takes a GMT movement and cleverly repackages it as a worldtimer experience, pairing a transparent 24-hour disc with a city-marked ceramic bezel to let you track time zones globally. Three natural stone dial options in Sodalite, Labradorite, and Tiger’s Eye round out a watch that punches well above its $1,495 price tag.
