I have had a love-hate relationship with bronze-cased watches for years. I truly appreciate how the metal ages; there is nothing quite like a beautifully patinated watch just before it turns into a greenish hue. The beauty is that it never quite ages the same for everyone, and if you don’t like the results, a little lemon juice bath can have you start all over. My only issue is that I am a person who perspires quite a bit, and the bronze watches I have owned have been large honking divers. The latter would often transfer some of the patina goodness onto my arm, especially in the summer heat.
Our friends from Baltic may have the solution I have been searching for: a non-honking bronze watch! Introducing the Baltic Hermétique Tourer Bronze, essentially a bronze version of their popular new series. As you may already know, Hermétique translates to “hermetic” in English, which means sealed tight. This is fitting for a watch with an impressive water resistance of 150 meters despite its elegant proportions and a thin push-pull crown that is recessed into the case.
Another interesting aspect of this watch is that it is made of CuAl8 bronze, an alloy of copper and aluminum, as opposed to CuSn8, which is bronze and tin. The former, known as aluminum gold or gold bronze, is strong, corrosion-resistant, and pale gold in color. It resists tarnishing and corrosion in both air and seawater, withstands oxidation at high temperatures, and shows low reactivity with sulfurous compounds and combustion exhaust products. In other words, it will take longer to patina and likely won’t transfer to human skin.
The watch has identical measurements to its stainless steel counterparts, with a diameter of 37mm, a lug-to-lug distance of 46mm, and a thickness of 10.8mm, reaching up to the top of the double-domed sapphire crystal. The Japanese Miyota 9039 movement powers it, part of their premium 9-series. This movement is well-regarded for its construction and performance, featuring a beat rate of 28,000 alternations per hour and a power reserve of 42 hours. Over the last few years, I have owned many watches with this series of movements, and they have all either outperformed or lived up to their Swiss competitors.
Three dial variations are available: a brown dial, a green dial, and a blue dial. The brown and green dials feature SuperLuminova C3X1, a top-of-the-line luminous material that glows bright green in the dark. The blue dial variant utilizes SuperLuminova BGW9, which is nearly as effective in glowing but emits a blue light instead of green. All the dials showcase a fumé pattern, and the hands are gold-toned to match the cases. All the markers and numerals on the dial are made from that newfangled block lume material, which adds three-dimensional depth. The minute track is defined by polished bronze blades that separate it from the rest of the dial.
Each Baltic Hermétique Tourer Bronze comes with color-matched FKM Tropic-style straps and bronze tang buckles. They’re available beginning today, with pricing set at 600€ and delivery set to begin next week. Baltic
