Lessons In Design: Baltic’s Approach To Watchmaking

It’s difficult to talk about “good” design in watchmaking. We know it when we see it, but when we attempt to describe it, we often recycle language developed by marketing departments. It’s the “proportions.” It’s the “balance.” It’s the “spacing.” Even to impassioned watch collectors, these descriptions don’t rouse much emotion.

Speaking with Jaś Rewkiewicz, Creative Director at Baltic Watches, it was clear that there is a gap between how he views the design process and the end result that attracts watch enthusiasts and collectors. Beneath the surface, there’s a whole world of knowledge and nuances guiding the aesthetics of Baltic’s timepieces. 

The choice of talking to the Creative Director behind Baltic is very intentional here. Everyone from tourists to purists have flocked to the brand since its launch in 2017. When well designed timepieces often mean out-of-this-world price tags in the watch industry, that’s not the case with Baltic. The brand aims to offer timeless, vintage-inspired watches, of the highest quality, for fair prices, which usually means timepieces that retail from around US$500 to US$2000. Though there is no cut-and-dry recipe for success, Jaś gave us some insight into how Baltic’s designs have created such intense fanfare in a short period of time. 

Curate First, Design Later

“If I taught a university course on design, it wouldn’t be about technique. It would be about curating taste and what that means.” In the first five minutes of our conversation, this statement was an eye-opener. To Jaś, design is always a function of aesthetic taste. Well developed taste requires work, often through curating inside of one’s own collection. Whether it’s curating and refining taste in fashion, watches, food, whisky, or wine, one has to research history, learn the language, and study the nuances. There’s nothing too small or insignificant. Every subject matter is infinitely deep. 

The role that curation and aesthetic taste plays in design is that it leads to strong opinions. In some aspects of life, strong opinions lead to nothing positive. In design, strong opinions are at the heart of the discipline. Lines have to be drawn in the sand so that collectors know where brands stand, what a brand stands for. As Jaś mentioned, “if you try to communicate with everyone, you end up communicating with no one.” This is why the strong taste preferences driving Baltic’s design focus on elevating vintage aesthetics from the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s across dress watches, chronographs and dive watches. Through an encyclopedic understanding of these historical timepieces, the brand has delivered timepieces that feel very in line with each of their respective time periods. 

What’s Trendy Now? It’s A Dangerous Question

In the watch industry, almost everything is defined by an already existing trend. Steel for every type of watch, certain dial colors are wildly popular, finishing has become a focal point for collector judgment, the list goes on and on. Every designer, similar to many artists, aspires to punch through the existing status quo, even if only doing so in a small way. To do so, there is a fine balance to be struck between extremes, something between knowing nothing about the current state of affairs and being overly influenced by existing norms in the industry.

Jaś commented that he tries to avoid internalizing popular aesthetics by leaning into what attracts his aesthetic taste. Rick Rubin, the well-known music producer, said a musician only becomes an artist after creating an album exclusively for themselves – no consideration to the audience. In the design process, there’s something similar ongoing with Baltic. Sometimes that means going with the grain, sometimes that means going against it.

While staying in line with the popularity of vintage aesthetics, the brand has walked its own path by showing that design doesn’t need to be an add-on alongside other trademarks of fine watchmaking (namely technical innovation, complications, and finishing). It’s difficult to label what this approach is. Maybe design-first or no-frills design? One way or the other, this approach has struck a chord with the industry’s “tastemakers” – leading watch retailers have partnered with the brand, like Perpétuel in Dubai, for special editions for their clientele as well as sartorial magazines like The Rake. 

Creative Risks Are Key

A large part of Baltic’s success can be credited to the fact that it’s in tune with a specific vintage era of watchmaking aesthetics, but it’s not a prisoner to it. The goal is ultimately to explore and play with the past, not simply duplicate it. That’s where creative risk-taking comes into the picture and defines part of what makes Baltic’s designs standout.

“We are inspired by vintage timepieces, but we push them to new places too,” Jaś commented. Citing the MR01, the timepiece he deemed “the Calatrava on steroids,” Baltic intentionally exaggerated the Breguet numerals to push the design language to its extreme. It feels very modern (in a good way!) to lean into the coveted Breguet numerals as the most aesthetically admired numerals in the industry for now. It’s both a nod to the past and the present. The end result is that Baltic is contributing to and expanding the aesthetics of vintage, Breguet-numeral timepieces.

Collectors can also see the brand’s contribution to playing with vintage designs by the addition of numerals at 12 o’clock in lieu of hour markers on dive and chronograph watches. The Aquascaphe Classic as well as their recent Tricompax watch break from vintage aesthetics in this regard. Through a deep knowledge in vintage watch aesthetics, Baltic is finding windows of opportunity to play with designs and assert their own style.

There is a lot to study and learn about Baltic. No frills, vintage aesthetic watchmaking– the secret to their success has very little to do with technique, specifications, technical innovation, or high-luxury finishing. It’s a lot more personal than that. Maybe that’s why collectors are so attracted to their timepieces? They simply do not feel like something created to tick boxes for better product differentiation in the market. “I only design watches that I want to wear,” Jaś mentioned and that may be the biggest differentiator of all.