The Baltic Bicompax Pulso for Revolution & The Rake
The Bicompax Pulso timepiece is already sold out and we would like to thank all of your support. Although it was our first collaboration, we're not surprised that the watch masterminded by the brilliant and affable young French watchmaker that is Etienne Malec proved so popular.
Democratizing Watches
Malec, on the other hand, is perfectly plugged into the zeitgeist. With the fearlessness of youth, he plunged into design and what he discovered was, he was good at it. Really good. Once he had his design for his first watches, he then had to make a critical decision in terms of pricing which would dictate where the watches were made.
He says, “One thing that was important to me was the idea of democratizing watches, meaning making them accessible to a whole new generation.” We in the watch world often forget that watches are staggeringly expensive. And there has been an erroneous position put forward by the older generation that young people are not interested in watches. Malec says, “This is absolutely untrue. I know that young people are more interested and more passionate about watches than ever. But there is a disconnect between what the big brands are creating and what we want to wear. Size, for example, is a big issue in that we prefer smaller, more classic proportioned watches. Then there is the issue of cost. Most big brand watches are prohibitive in price to the younger generation.” Indeed, owning a Rolex, Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet today is the equivalent of asking a young person if they intend to own a home in central Paris, London, New York, Shanghai or Singapore. Of course, they would love to, but the reality is the vast majority cannot afford this.
Says Malec, “After thinking about this, I became determined to make my watches ultra accessible in price — meaning less than 500 dollars. But because I am so obsessed with detail, I was determined not to sacrifice design and quality in any way. That led me to having the watches created in Asia. For my chronograph movement, I decided to use a Seagull caliber. But just as importantly, I wanted to be fully transparent about this. I dislike the lack of transparency in the watch industry and wanted to do precisely the opposite. So, I immediately communicated that the cases and movements came from Hong Kong, that the straps were from France, and that other accessories were from Italy.”
But more than just being transparent, Malec’s ethics compelled him to rethink the way watches are sold as well. He says, “Then I also knew that I wanted to offer my watches directly to the consumer, so as not to have the traditional watch industry margin. Anyway, it seems like the entire new generation was consuming content online and especially through social media, so this is the way we would communicate the watches and also how people would purchase them.”
But there was one major hurdle to Malec’s vision. He laughs when he recalls, “Yes, I didn’t have enough money to pay for the initial production. So, I thought what if I let people pre-order their watches through Kickstarter and that would be the way to fund the company?” This might seem commonplace today but it was Malec that paved the way for brands like Furlan Marri and Jacques Bianchi, both of which have achieved staggering success on Kickstarter.
BALTIC HMS AND BICOMPAX CHRONOGRAPH
Two of Baltic’s most famous watches are the HMS chronometer style watch and the Bicompax Chronograph. Both of these watches express Malec’s love affair with the 1940s. The cases of the first Baltic watches were something of a revelation at the time of their launch. While the rest of the industry was making relatively straightforward smooth bezeled cases, here was a throwback to the golden era of case makers like François Borgel (later Taubert Frères), André and Edouard Wenger as well as a healthy dose of Longines Tre Tacche influence characterized by a stunning stepped bezel, screw-down caseback and elegantly shaped lugs. Even the crown and chronograph pushers harked back to vintage units while the style was completed with a domed acrylic crystal. In other words, the watches were just cool, and they immediately struck a chord with the youth market. Here were retro-modern watches executed with great design and, at an asking price of EUR 339 (around USD 462) for the HMS and EUR 649 (around USD 752) for the Bicompax, represented an unbelievable value proposition.
Says Malec, “It’s funny but when people tried the watches we kept hearing, ‘I can’t believe the watch costs so little,’ but I think that is a demonstration of how much margin is added to most other watches. For me, I wanted to offer the best value directly to the customer.”
Malec is very open about the fact that the movement in the Bicompax is the Seagull ST19. This is a manual wind chronograph caliber made in China by the Tianjin Watch Factory. Says Malec, “The story of this movement is interesting. In 1961, the Tianjin Watch Factory bought the rights to the Venus caliber 175 from the Swiss company. They redeveloped this movement into the ST19, which was used in pilot’s chronographs for many years. In 1992, the company became the Tianjin Seagull Corporation. But because I wanted to create a slim watch with a classic size and at a sub-one-thousand-dollar asking price, I knew this was the only movement that would make sense.” There was, of course, the question of using a Japanese sourced mecha-quartz movement but Malec replies, “I considered it, of course, but in the end, I wanted young people to have the pleasure of winding their watch every day. For me, this was an important part of learning about my father’s watches. I interacted with them each day by winding them and developed a relationship with them as a result. I understood the feeling of pressure and resistance from the mainspring, I understood the satisfying sound of the barrel click falling into place over and over. I wanted young people to experience this and fall in love with their Baltic watches in the same way.”
