Aquascaphe MK2
the second act of a cult diver

Baltic built its name on the original Aquascaphe: a vintage compressor case shrunk down to a size the big Swiss dive watches abandoned decades ago, sold direct for a few hundred euros. The MK2, out since 2025, is the version where a seven-year-old microbrand finally has the confidence to redesign its own hit rather than just recolor it.

The case runs 39.5mm across, with a 37mm size for smaller wrists, 47mm lug to lug, and 12.9mm thick. On those numbers alone, it should be an easy watch to wear daily. The bezel insert is sapphire rather than the aluminum or ceramic you would expect at this price, graduated to the minute and color matched to the dial, and the crystal over the dial is double dome sapphire as well. Baltic did not cut corners on the parts your thumb and eye actually meet.

What it did not upgrade is the engine. Inside is a Miyota 9039, a commodity Japanese automatic that hacks and hand-winds and holds 42 hours, rated by its own maker at between 10 seconds slow and 30 seconds fast a day. That is a workmanlike movement inside a well-dressed case, and at $770 to $800 depending on strap or bracelet you are paying boutique prices for an engine Miyota sells to fifty other brands too. The Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 costs less across the board and still answers with an 80-hour ETA-based caliber and a much larger service network behind it. I would take the Tissot’s movement inside the Baltic’s case, if anyone actually sold that watch.

Nobody does, so the trade is the whole review. You are paying for design and case work from a brand that still has something to prove, wrapped around a movement its maker also puts in far cheaper homages. Fine by me, mostly. The Aquascaphe MK2’s numbers point to a watch that wears well for its size, and it looks like nothing else at the money. Whether that is worth more to you than a proven movement and a bigger service network is the actual question this watch is asking.