Hands-On The Baltic Prismic Stone Limited Editions

Now, in 2024, Baltic can't even really be called a microbrand anymore. With 11 product collections spanning 48 watches, the brand has cemented itself as a mainstay in the circuit – selling predominantly directly to consumers but also through nine brick-and-mortar retailers. This year, the brand opened its third showroom in New York City, and with this third location, it debuts a series of three watches to celebrate each of the three spaces – New York, Paris, and London.

I had an opportunity to go visit the New York showroom last week, to see the new space and also get my hands on the brand new Prismic Stone Limited Editions. Located in the heart of SoHo at 110 Greene Street, the Baltic showroom finds itself in a part of the neighborhood that is slowly becoming more and more of a watch shopping destination. It's near the classics like Watches of Switzerland and Material Good, but also new boutiques from Cartier and Omega. Shortly after confirming my appointment, I received a security pass for 110 Greene in my email – a voucher for a discount off an Uber was a nice touch for customers. Once I arrived, I showed my photo ID to the security guard on duty and went on my way. After an elevator ride and several hallways later, I arrived at the showroom.

The New York City space is run by showroom manager Rémi Martin (not to be confused with the similar-sounding Cognac). Martin is originally from France, and he started with Baltic in 2023 at the Paris showroom, eventually becoming junior sales manager at the location. With this new showroom in NYC, Martin moved to the Big Apple to oversee the opening, sales, and operations here.

The showroom is well laid out, with an open floor plan and plenty of USM furniture along the walls. On top of these units, trays showcase the various collections of the brand, from the Hermetique to the MR001. Plenty of watch books and magazines are to be found – Martin was quick to show me almost every single issue of the Hodinkee magazine. The main attractions for today, the Prismic Stone editions, were laid out neatly on the center coffee table.

While Baltic released the Prismic collection in February early this year, the reception was a bit mixed, especially regarding the dial design. No matter your opinion on the aesthetics, the effort that went into the Prismic concept was impossible to ignore, and having seen the watch with these stone dials, I can say that these are the winning combination.

All carved from natural stones, the dials come in Lapis Lazuli for the Paris showroom, Red Agate for the London showroom, and Green Jade for the New York showroom. They are striking in person. While the standard Prismic editions utilize a mixture of shapes for the applied indices, the stone dial versions dial it back with a Calatrava-esque set of polished, applied hour markers, as well as sharply-faceted dauphine hands. The Baltic logo and seconds markers are printed in white. Up close, the lacquered finish between the thin cut of stone and the markers and text gives the appearance that the printing and markers float above the dial, a cool, most likely unintentional, detail.

In the showroom, I remarked how the Lapis Lazuli dial seemed the richest in coloring. Martin agreed, stating that at the thickness of the cut for these stones, Lapis is the least transparent and thus preserves its coloring on the dial the best. While everyone at Hodinkee knows my endless obsession with green, the Red Agate dial surprised me the most. In the sunlight, it was a bright neon orange-red, with the striations in the stone being the most subtle of the three. Indoors, you could almost mistake it for being an orange lacquered dial.

Of course, the most exciting aspect of the stone dials, Martin remarked, is that every single one will be slightly different. He showed me photos of some preproduction samples, and the Lapis Lazuli took on different shades based on how much white occlusion or black occlusion there was.

The case, just like on the regular Prismic editions, is 36mm in diameter and "cocktail watch" inspired, as the brand puts it. The 9.2mm-thick case is composed of five parts, with the bezel, lugs, and caseback made from stainless steel and the midcase made of sandblasted Grade 5 titanium. With contrasting finishes across the case, it's an intense design and gives the smaller diameter enough visual impact even on a larger wrist.

The watch will be available to order with the new stainless-steel mesh bracelet or a calfskin strap, both giving very different visual results. While the stainless-steel mesh bracelet is usually a no-brainer, upon trying it on, I noticed that the bracelet works best with flatter wrists. It's a very comfortable bracelet, with a slight taper at the end, but due to the nature of the more solid endlink portion, the mesh has to flare out to a certain extent. This theoretically widens the lug-to-lug before the bracelet can drop down to conform to your wrist, unlike a mesh bracelet with straight ends. Smaller-wristed folks like me, beware.

Inside the watch is the ETA-supplied Peseux 7001. It's a manual winding caliber with 42 hours of power reserve and features diamond-polished bevels, Côtes de Genève striping on the bridges, and blued screws. Unlike the standard Prismic, the movements in the Stone editions have "Baltic Watches" engraved on the ratchet wheel. The 7001 is a workhorse movement with a lot of history, and it's nice to see a little bit of decoration to spruce up this movement in the Prismic, justifying the sapphire caseback.

My colleague Mark Kauzlarich, in his earlier hands-on with the standard Prismic editions, remarked that the many details that went into aspects of the watch, while interesting, came across as perhaps just a little bit too much. I think I agree with his sentiments on the original editions, but with the stone dials, the front of the watch shows just a little more restraint to let the stone dials shine, and I think it provides that balance that the standard versions didn't necessarily achieve. The Prismic Stone editions seem to answer the question: What if we saw Patek do a Reference 96 with a stone dial?

While we'll never know the actual answer, I think this set of new releases from Baltic comes close and at a price that makes it much more realistic to enjoy. However, one obstacle to attainability will be the fact that these three stone dials are limited editions, never to be produced again. They will be made in 200 numbered examples for each of the three dials, and I think that at the 1,310€ (without VAT) price for the watch on bracelet, these will sell extremely fast.

Despite these watches being produced as a celebration of the three showrooms, customers will probably rejoice in knowing that they are not showroom exclusives. The three watches will be available to pre-order online starting September 19th at 4 PM Paris Time, with delivery in October. They are priced at 1,310€ on metal bracelet, and 1,250€ on leather strap. 

That being said, Martin let me know that each of the three showrooms will also be holding a small amount of inventory for in-person customers, with each of the showrooms stocking their respective stone dial variant, so maybe this is the opportunity to go check out the spaces if you're in one of the three cities. 

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