Baltic have produced a handful of chronographs in partnership with races, including the Scalegraph Tour Auto. However, they’re predominantly dedicated to the world of motorsport. That’s not the case with their latest limited edition though, which takes things to the water in honour of the Transat Café L’Or, a transatlantic sailing race between Europe and America that has Baltic as their official timing partner for the 17th edition of the competition. The celebratory watch is the Baltic Scalegraph Transat Café L’Or Limited Edition.
Out of the starting gate (or should that be crossing the starting line?) the Scalegraph has been adapted for its new life on the water. The tachymeter bezel has been adapted so that its now graduated to knots over 1/10th of a nautical mile, allowing you to calculate the average speed of a sailing boat. Additionally, the chronograph subdial at 3 o’clock has been repurposed as a 15-minute countdown timer, serving as a form of regatta timer allowing you to time the start of a race to perfection. Speaking of starting a race, the start of the Transat Café L’Or is October 26th with 74 crews setting out from Le Havre to Martinique.
While Café is part of the race’s name, it also seemingly informs part of the colourway with the main dial in a pale champagne tone that reminds me a latte from a Parisian café. That’s paired with the blue of the chronograph timer, orange chronograph seconds hand, silver hour and minute hands, and white timing scales. In some regards it’s quite a busy display with a lot of colours, but it also pulls together nicely like the livery of a sailing boat.
Powering this limited edition is the Sellita SW511 BH a manual winding chronograph movement with 63-hour power reserve. I do think an automatic movement would make more sense because you can’t guarantee that you’ll always have your hands free when you need to wind it while you’re sailing. Even if the 63-hour reserve is very solid.
Although manual does have the benefit of removing the bulky rotor and allowing for slimmer proportions, and the Baltic Scalegraph Transat Café L’Or Limited Edition measures 39.5mm x 11.3mm excluding glass. Worth noting the glass is highly domed, taking it up to 14.1mm. It’s not exactly a shrinking violet but imagine how much thicker it would be with a rotor as well. Plus, the case has a water resistance rating of 100m, protecting it against ocean spray.
The Baltic Scalegraph Transat Café L’Or is limited to 200 pieces at a price of £1,519, with orders opening on the 23rd of October at 3pm. If you want a nautical chronograph with a bezel dedicated to the sea, here you go.
Price and Specs:
More details at Baltic.
I’m not normally a fan of Chrono watches or very bold colours but this new release from (to coin the phase from a well known Motorsport TV program from yesteryear), from a brand that sits firmly in the band of being a star in a reasonably priced car, this is nice (with either bracelet or strap), just a pity about the rod style Chrono pushers, but I guess practically overrules style for a water sport based watch.
Pity also in terms of limited availability, as I’m sure this will be well received.