The French company, Baltic, has been on a roll and I have been eyeing their offerings for some time. They have a keen design sense and based on the website photos, excellent finishing.
While borrowing from the past, this watch is contemporary at the same time, with an interesting micro rotor movement (Chinese) and a transparent case back to view it. The movement is fancily (if not crudely) finished with all kinds of textures.
The dial is the real star, with a textured base, polished, applied Breuget-style numerals, an offset sub-dial and no date. I chose the blue but the silver and salmon are also compelling.
At 36mm diameter, you might think it is too small, but it wears larger- and unfortunately, taller, then you would think.
The strap is first-rate Italian calf leather and is very soft and pliable. I was suspicious of the bracelets, as they were only $60 more, and I don't see how you make a nice bracelet in that price range.
Ordering online was painless, and the watch arrived with very detailed tracking from DHL in about 6 days.
Here's the bad stuff.
The proportions of the watch are odd in person. The bezel is "squared off" with no beveling or rounding off, like a thick washer that you'd use with a bolt. A watch this elegant needs smoother transitions. It's also a pretty chunky and wide bezel that kind of dominates when you look at it straight on. And the high polish on top makes it really stand out as the light reflects straight off it.
The watch also sits pretty high on your wrist, despite the thin micro rotor movement. The domed plastic crystal doesn't help, as its steep sides rise straight up from the bezel, adding height, instead of a graceful curved dome.
The price is another issue. At $600 US, it's no bargain considering you can buy that movement online for $65. $399 seems more in line.
Bottom line, I returned it.
You’re more than welcome to have your opinions on this watch, however I take issue with you bringing up the price of the movement as if that should effect the overall price of the watch. When you make a watch, there’s so much more to it than just the cost for your base movement. Just to make the watch itself you have to get the movement, case (and that consists of crystal, caseback, bezel, midcase, crown, crown tube, and all gaskets necessary for water resistance), dial, hands, and a strap/bracelet.
On top of that, there is an entire team behind the brand that also deserves credit too. There are the ones designing the watches, the customer support team, the marketing and social media team, a watchmaker (or several), as well as whoever else is in the company. All of their time and hard work was not done for free, and the sale of their watches directly goes towards paying their salaries and ensuring they can continue making great watches.
Just because you personally do not think the watch is worth what they are asking does not mean others feel the same, and to imply the cost of the movement should dictate the cost of the watch is incredibly disingenuous.
Yep you're more than welcome to buy the movement for $65, sit it on a desk and look at it by itself 😂
It's also slightly disingenuous as an argument. Baltic is decorating the movement, blueing screws, etc. So it's not exactly the same as the base $65 movement. There is some additional cost there. If that decoration isn't to OP's liking, fine. But it's a relatively inexpensive watch. I wouldn't expect much at all in the way of movement decoration on a sub $600 watch.
Beyond that, on the microbrand level it seems kind of nonsensical to me to so heavily scrutinize the movement itself. That's kind of the point of a microbrand imo. You can get nice finishing at the price because the money isn't being spent (by and large) on movement R&D and is being appropriated elsewhere. So it would make sense to me that a higher proportion of the 'value' of the watch is in the every day visible parts of it vs a more traditional or luxury brand. Buy it because you like the design, you like the case proportions, you like the dial and case finishing, etc. The dial in particular on the MR01 is very nice for a watch at its price level. And realistically that's what you're looking at 99% of the time. I think it's important to bear in mind that it's a Baltic, not a Lange.
And honestly, you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer looking watch with a microrotor for the same kind of money anyway. Or for considerably more money for that matter. OP knew the price going in and knew what the movement was, so it clearly wasn't that big of a barrier at the time of purchase.
It's also a strange criticism for me to complain about the watch's thickness when it's under 10mm including the crystal. I've seen and worn the MR01 many times at meetups and am always impressed by its thinness and relative proportions. Do I own thinner watches? Sure. For sub $600 though? Under 10mm is pretty thin.
The stepped case is more personal taste and references some historical cases. If that's not OP's cup of tea, fine. But I think it's a stretch to call the watch 'flawed' based on these criticisms.