Baltic Updates Their Iconic Diver Collection With The Aquascaphe MK2; Doxa Releases A Seafoam Green Carbon SUB 300; The Otsuka Lotec No 9 Is A Stunning Departure; A Debut From Stollenwurm

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In this issue

• Baltic Updates Their Iconic Diver Collection With The Aquascaphe MK2

• Doxa Releases A Carbon SUB 300 With Seafoam Green Dial For Watches Of Switzerland

• The Otsuka Lotec № 9, With An In-House Tourbillon, Striking and Jumping Functions, Is A Stunning Departure

• Stollenwurm Debuts With Highly Luxurious Platinum And Tantalum Series 1

• SPECIAL FEATURE: The Serica 1174 Parade: Minimalism, Revival, and the New Shape of Watch Authenticity

👂What’s new

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Baltic Updates Their Iconic Diver Collection With The Aquascaphe MK2

While it wasn’t their first watch when it launched back in 2018, the original Aquascaphe collection is the watch that put Baltic on the map. It showed that they can make great looking, vintage-inspired, watches that are well built and affordable. Over the years, the Baltic Aquascaphe expanded into many colors, sizes and setups, being super important to the brand even today. So, it’s a bit of a surprise that it took them almost eight years to redesign it. Well, that day has come, and this is the new Baltic Aquascaphe MK2 collection, available in two sizes and four colors.

This isn’t a ground-up redesign, more of a significant upgrade, in the best possible way. While the original came in a 39mm case, the Mk2 is available in either a smaller sized 37mm wide case that has a 45mm lug-to-lug, or a 39.5mm one with a comfortable 47mm lug-to-lug. Both cases share the same thickness of 12.9mm. On top is a double domed sapphire crystal, framed by a 120 click unidirectional bezel that now has a notched side and crystal insert that match the dial, with a fully graduated 60-minute scale. The crown has guards on either side and when you screw it down you get 200 meters of water resistance.

The dial gets a bit of a different setup now, as the sandwich construction is gone. What you do get is hour markers mad out of Lumicast, a lumed material that gives it plenty of three dimensionality. Around the edge is a minute track in contrasting colors and there are four colors to choose from — blue and green glossy dials, or dark grey and silver grained dials. All of them, except the silver one, gets color matched inserts on the bezel.

Inside, you’ll find the automatic Miyota 9039. it beats at 4Hz and has a 42 hour power reserve, while remaining easily servicable and maintanable. The new Aquascaphe MK2 collection comes on new FKM rubber straps, which now have a saffiano leather pattern. Not something you see every day. However, you can also upgrade the watches to an either steel beads of rice or a steel flat link bracelet.

Orders for the new Baltic Aquascaphe MK2 open on September 25th, with deliveries starting mid-October, and the watches will be part of the regular collection. Price is set at €630 on rubber and €695 on the bracelets, both without tax. See more on the Baltic website.

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Doxa Releases A Carbon SUB 300 With Seafoam Green Dial For Watches Of Switzerland

Doxa has been on a bit of a cool roll lately. Along side their regular lineup, which is growing nicely, and limited editions like the Clive Cussler models, they have partnered up with a couple of retailers around the world to create really nicely colored special editions. Now, they’re partnering with Watches of Switzerland, one of the largest retailers in the world, for a really cool SUB 300 Carbon Seafoam Limited Edition.

Based on the regular SUB 300, this is a familiar watch. It comes in the signature Doxa helmet case, measuring 42.5mm wide and 13.4mm thick. It’s made out of forged carbon, which helps offset the size with its lightness. But before you dismiss the 42.5mm width as too large, Doxa is known for wearing much smaller. On top is a unidirectional bezel that’s also made out of forged carbon. Water resistance is 300 meters.

Then, we have the dial, which keeps all the expected SUB 300 details, like the blocky hands — here rendered in black — the square tip to the seconds hand and black and white lumed hour markers, as well as the date aperture at 3 o’clock. What’s new is the sunray brushed seafom colored dial. Looks good, especially contrasting the black of the case.

Inside, no surprises — it’s the Sellita SW200-1, an automatic that beats at 4Hz and has a 38 hour power reserve. The watch comes on a matching seafoam NATO green strap and a black FKM rubber strap.

The new Doxa Sub 300 Carbon Seafoam is, of course, limited and only 100 will be made, sold only through Watches of Switzerland stores in the UK and US. Price is set at $3,990.00 or £3,890. See more on the Watches of Switzerland website.

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The Otsuka Lotec № 9, With An In-House Tourbillon, Striking and Jumping Functions, Is A Stunning Departure

Over the past several years, very few brands have gotten the wild amount of attention, praise and desire as the Japanese indie brand Otsuka Lotec, headed by watchmaker Jiro Katayama. Otsuka Lotec became instantly recognizable for their industrial and quirky style, unlike anything else in the industry, but also frustratingly unavailable outside of Japan, leading to huge markups on the secondary market. However, even with the markups, Otsuka Lotec watches, which were intentioned to be affordable takes on original watchmaking, were priced fairly for watches that are mind blowing. But what we haven’t seen from Otsuka Lotec is what happens when you let Katayama do whatever he wants, at whatever price point he wants. What you get is the Otsuka Lotec № 9, a wildly imaginative take on his signature style with a sensational in-house developed movement. This is an instant top-10-watch-of-the-year for me. It’s incredible.

The first departure from previous models happens with the case. It’s keeps the steampunk look, made out of stainless steel, with a rectangular shape and a jaw-dropping sapphire crystal that curves around the watch, giving you a look at movement from all sides. And it’s even more impressive when you consider the fact that it measures just 30mm wide, 13mm thick and with a 44mm length. The caseback is curved to match the curve of your wrist, the steel has a brushed finish with quirky positions of the crown and pusher — the crown sits at 10 o’clock, while the striker pusher sits at 8 o’clock.

There’s no dial here, and the watch is all the better for it. While most skeletonized watches still have centrally mounted hands, this one doesn’t even have that, as this in house movement features two very groovy time telling mechanisms. The hours are shown on a jumping transparent disc that sits at the top right of the case, while the center of the dial has a retrograde transparent minute disc that has a hairspring that snaps the disc back to zero at the top of every hour. Both the hour and minute discs have lumed blocks below them, glowing under the correct time. It’s incredible. Oh, and there’s also a tiny cylinder that goes in and out displaying the power reserve.

The in-house movement doesn’t just have the cool time indicator mechanism, it also has a one-minute tourbillon beating at 2.5Hz, as well as a free sprung balance. But while most will put all focus on the tourbillon, Katayama had different ideas. The coolest thing about this watch is a squared-off pipe shaped gong that wraps around the entire movement on top and the side, visible through that cool crystal. On the lower left of the dial you’ll also see a large, industrial hammer that smashes against the gong. Even cooler.

The movement is called the Calibre SSGT, and it’s made out of 278 components. Interestingly, it uses elements from the Unitas 6498. It’s manually wound and gives you 40 hours of power reserve. The watch comes on a padded black leather strap with steel pin buckle.

Just like other watches from the brand, the Otsuka Lotec № 9 will be near impossible to get outside of Japan. Not only is production going to be low, Otsuka Lotec requires a a local credit card for purchase and will not ship outside Japan. But in addition to all of that, considering the incredible craftsmanship that goes into a thing like this, it’s not a cheap watch. Price is set at JPY 16,000,000, without tax, which translates to €92,000. See more on the Otsuka Lotec website.

 4/

Stollenwurm Debuts With Highly Luxurious Platinum And Tantalum Series 1

I’m still going through releases from Geneva Watch Days, and will be for weeks to come. And it’s always interesting to see a new brand and the watches they present themselves with. A new brand I got to see at GWD is Stollenwurm, named after an Alpine mythical creature that has the body of a lizard and a head of a cat. An interesting choice for a brand, but right away, Stollenwurm fully embraces the mythological and ethereal as part of their identity. Their debut watches are the Series 1 Astrological Day-Date and Series 2 Tarot Metiers d’Art. While the Series 2 Tarot Metiers d’Art is wild, I’ll write that up in a separate article, I just have to ask for more photos.

While the Series 2 is full of color and whimsy, Series 1 is way more subdued. Until you handle one in your hands, when you realize it’s one of the most luxurious cases you’ve ever handled. The proportions are comfortable, measuring 42mm wide and just 9.65mm thick, with a 49mm lug-to-lug that fits the wrist easily thanks to an integrated bracelet that curves around your hand. But it weighs way more than you would expect, in a good way. That’s because the case is made out of platinum, with a tantalum bracelet. Kind of the grand slam of luxurious metals. On top is a domed sapphire crystal, out back a flat one, both with AR coating, while the back one is engraved with the text “Stollenwurm Le Locle” and “limited edition N.x/12”. The watch is put together with Stollenwurm designed titanium crews and on the side is a platinum crown with tantalum cabochon. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is rendered in a dark grey DLC, with a radial laser engraving. The applied Arabic numerals have a ruthenium DLC finish, with white gold arrowhead hands for the hours and minutes and a white gold lancet hand for the seconds. The Stollenwurm Series 1 Astrological Day-Date pays tribute to the astrological root of the modern calendar. They do so with an opening at 6 o’clock that has two discs inside. The lower disc shows the date, while the top one has seven symbols that represent the astrological signs associated with each day.

Inside, you’ll find the WU-A1001-DD, a movement made for Stollenwurm by Télôs Watch and TMH. It’s an automatic beating at 4Hz with an 80 hour power reserve from double barrels, wound with a tungsten micro-rotor. It’s also incredibly intricately designed, with seeping bridges that form a Stollenwurm. The watch comes on a platinum and tatalum strap.

The new Stollenwurm Series 1 Astrological Day-Date is available for order now at a very ambitious price of CHF 100,000, with an equally ambitious story behind it. The watch is limited to 12 pieces, and I know they sold quite well at GWD, so hurry up if you want one. See more on the Stollenworm website.

SPECIAL FEATURE: The Serica 1174 Parade: Minimalism, Revival, and the New Shape of Watch Authenticity

On a crisp Saturday morning at a Paris café, sunlight dances across marble tabletops and green Parisian chairs, painting angular highlights on silver cutlery and fine ceramic mugs. Amid the café’s mix of locals and visitors, a slender wrist emerges from the sleeve of a sand-colored linen blazer — just as a barista sets down a flat white with a practiced flourish. What catches the eye, momentarily pulling it from the bustle and hum, is not a screen or an oversized brand’s logo, but a subtle glint — the Serica 1174 Parade.

The watch itself doesn’t beg attention. Its elliptical, stadium-shaped case feels architectural, echoes of brutalist curves softened into something unexpectedly inviting. There’s no loud logo, no ticking seconds hand to urge one onward — just two elegant, polished leaf-shaped hands that point out the time with restraint. This scene is not pure fantasy; it is precisely the kind of encounter the Serica 1174 Parade was built to create. But how did we get to this moment, and why does this object — partly ancient, partly futuristic, wholly contemporary — carry such meaning? The answer is a journey through minimalism, retro revivalism, and the tangled search for authenticity in a distracted age.

Minimalism, in both art and lifestyle, is less a style than a philosophy — a cultivated response to excess and clutter, born of twentieth-century anxieties and post-war optimism. The roots reach deep: from Kasimir Malevich’s 1915 Black Square — an audacious experiment in elimination — to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s crisp assertion, “less is more,” minimalism reimagines beauty as clarity, paring away until only the necessary remains.

In the visual arts of the 1950s and 60s, pioneers like Donald Judd and Frank Stella rejected noisy abstraction for what Judd called “the thing as a whole, its quality whole, is what is interesting.” Stella, too, distilled his practice to the razor-edged maxim: “What you see is what you see”. Agnes Martin, chasing the infinite within the line, claimed, “Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection”. Such artistic asceticism found parallels in architecture (van der Rohe’s glass-and-steel rectangles), design, and ultimately, the modern obsession with curating our material lives.

This ethic has migrated, in recent years, from gallery and boutique into the daily rituals of global consumers weary of too-muchness. Marie Kondo’s KonMari method — “keep only those things that speak to your heart” — brings the sensibility of the white cube into the Chaotic Closet, an answer to what Kyle Chayka calls “addiction to accumulation”. Minimalism today is both response to and symptom of a world drowning in options; it is a rejection of “the passion to possess,” as Joshua Becker put it; an assertion that “focus on what’s important” creates “freedom, fulfillment, and happiness”.

This influence on watch design is profound. Watches, once sites of mechanical bravura and at time maximalist ornament, are increasingly canvases for minimalist simplicity. The Serica Parade, with its interestingnshape, unobtrusive dial, and the almost defiant absence of a seconds hand, epitomizes this philosophy — what one reviewer called “a gentler hour, freed from the constant reminder of time passing and never stopping”.

But minimalism is only half the modern mood. If some crave less, many are drawn to the comforts of before. Retro revival culture, now a driving force in fashion, music, and design, is not simply a longing for kitsch. It is a profound, commercially potent nostalgia. In this era, the past becomes not just a reference but a product — what analysts term “emotional currency”. Why? Because as digital everything remixes and accelerates, the known and vetted feels like psychic shelter.

The Netflix hit Stranger Things was not just entertainment; it drove an “80s-era phenomenon” so strong that lumberjack shirts and vintage jackets exploded in popularity. “Nostalgia marketing has become a billion-dollar industry,” one researcher observed, “because nostalgic feelings increase consumers’ willingness to spend”. Pokémon Go’s 2016 sensation was more than gameplay — it was time-travel to childhood for millions. As marketing analysts noted, “Recognizing that nostalgia is the way to any millennial’s heart, the company is taking full advantage”.

Yet this is not mere whimsy. Retro revival is aesthetic conservatism in disguise; it is, in the words of one observer, “restraint is the new rebellion.” Vintage fashion and décor signal both sustainability concerns and a quest for individuality in an age of mass replicability: “In a world dominated by fast fashion and fleeting digital content, vintage offers a sense of permanence and authenticity”. It is a search for depth in pattern, silhouette, and the patina of time.

The Serica 1174 Parade is where these currents — minimalism and revivalism — meet in rare harmony. Born of a French microbrand founded by Jérôme Burgert and Gabriel Vachette in 2019, Serica’s mission is to produce “singular and sophisticated waterproof Swiss chronometers,” making the brand a case-study in contemporary independent watchmaking. The Parade is their first comprehensive dress watch: designed not for display but for living — in vivid, daily, Parisian moments like the café scene with which we began.

The Parade’s most notable feature is its 35mm × 41mm stadium-shaped case, an “elongated ellipse with straight vertical sides”, not something you see every day. The reference number — 1174 — expresses its proportions (1:1.74), an architectural in-joke and a mark of design innovation. Crafted from 316L stainless steel, alternating brushed and polished finishes, its slim (8.3-8.6mm thick) profile grants it both presence and comfort.

But this elegance is undergirded by technical sophistication: the “sandwich” case construction, with caseback screws anchoring through to the bezel, allows for an impressive 100 meters of water resistance — without a screw-down crown. This technical feat is matched by thoughtful symmetry, with crown guards mirrored by a subtle 9 o’clock protrusion for profile balance.

The Parade’s dial distills modern minimalism — sunburst finishes, a 48 S-curve guilloché pattern for dynamic shimmer, and twelve half-sphere appliques for hour markers. “Every glance at the time offers a rediscovery of the watch,” the brand proclaims. There are no loud colors, no logo at 12 — indeed, branding is so subtle that only a minute “Swiss Made” inscription at 6 remains. Available in “satin black” (true dress) and “sunray brass/bronze” (echoes of vintage gold), the dials recall the prestige of 1970s classics.

The parade’s hands — the only kinetic aspect, and even then, only hours and minutes — are mirror-polished, domed, and “sword-leaf” shaped. Their simplicity frames a radical decision: to forgo the seconds hand altogether. This is, materially and philosophically, a rejection of hurry. “Life should always be a matter of elegance before worrying about fractions of a second,” the founders argue.

Inside, the Swiss SoProd M100 automatic movement (25-jewel, 28,800 vibrations/hr, 42-hour power reserve) echoes the minimalist ethos: robust, efficient, with Côtes de Genève finishing. With no running seconds hand (and thus no chronometer certification), the movement is nevertheless as precise as its tool-watch siblings, tested for accuracy in six positions to assure tolerances within -4/+6 seconds/day.

Completing the package is a black calfskin strap, tapering gently for comfort and style, and a signature buckle that mimics the case’s stadium shape — a poetic echo of the design's anchoring idea.

The Parade is neither pure minimalist icon nor vintage pastiche, but a masterful fusion of influence and intent.

At its core, the the watch is a triumph of minimalism — a “thing as a whole” that privileges substance and silhouette over adornment. The absence of branding, dial flourishes, and temporal anxiety transforms wearing the watch into a “refined approach to timekeeping,” one that invites its owner to be rather than to measure each passing instant.

Yet it is not minimalist in the ascetic, sterile sense. The sunray guilloché on the dial, the gentle glow of half-sphere markers, and the elliptical warmth of the case all signal a love for detail — echoing Agnes Martin’s insistence that “beauty…is in the mind”. The Parade is less about reduction for its own sake, and more about illuminating essentials with craft and care.

At the same time, the Parade’s design speaks powerfully to retro revivalism. Its proportions recall the reign of shaped watches — Patek Philippe’s Golden Ellipse, Omega’s DeVille, even the softer lines of the Seventies. The gentle curve of the stadium case and the restrained colorways evoke “a more sporty and industrial expression” of these precedents. But where so much retro is surface imitation, Serica translates nostalgia into something authentic. The watch is “not a limited edition” but a permanent collection, an object for actual, daily use.

Most compellingly, the Parade is unafraid to tackle the contradictions of contemporary taste. It is “robust” and “water-resistant” — attributes of tool watches, not fragile dress timepieces. It nods to the current “shaped watch renaissance” among collectors fatigued by round, generic offerings. As Russell Sheldrake at Time + Tide summarized, it’s “the perfect dress watch for someone more used to wearing chunky sports watches every day”. In combining the “absence of logos or text,” geometric innovation born of the past, and technical demands of modern consumers, the Parade captures the intersection of “meaningful simplicity and understated luxury”.

Retro revival, for its part, teeters between comfort and cliché. When every season retreads old patterns, authenticity is threatened by endless remix. As some reviewers of Stranger Things pointed out, the show “operates on pure aesthetic nostalgia — no thoughts, just vibes”. Is there truly meaning in the past, or only the anesthetic of déjà vu? The Parade responds to these critiques with humility and intent. By eschewing signature marks of status, harnessing historical forms without slavish mimicry, and delivering technical integrity as standard, it resists easy classification as either hollow trend or empty lifestyle product.

As our imagined Parisian morning winds on, the wearer's wrist returns quietly to their lap. There is no need for attention, yet the Parade's gentle surface catches afternoon light. In a world obsessed with quantity — photos, notifications, possessions — it is restrained objects like this that paradoxically offer the richest experience.

Read more about the Serica 1174 here.

⏲️Wait a minute

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

• In 2011, before Syria’s civil war broke out, a small but promising tech scene was beginning to emerge. The country’s young, social media–savvy generation also played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring protests. Over 14 years of conflict, some startups managed to survive, including the ride-hailing app YallaGo and the food and grocery delivery platform BeeOrder. With Assad’s regime collapsing at the end of 2024, a new wave of innovation is emerging. In this hopeful Rest of World story, Emily Wither spotlights Syrian entrepreneurs and tech optimists who are eager to rebuild their country—and reimagine its future.

• Stéphane Pacaud, a French businessman based in Prague, is the enigmatic architect behind one of the world's largest adult entertainment empires—including the mega-popular websites XVideos and XNXX. Operating through a complex corporate web, Pacaud’s ventures dominate European and global porn markets, though his secretive profile and mounting legal challenges signal a pivotal moment for the industry.

• In 2025, SpaceX continues to dominate global spaceflight with an unprecedented launch cadence — 98 launches completed so far, mostly Falcon 9s, at a rapid pace of one launch every two days. Combining cost-cutting innovation and unprecedented scale, SpaceX is reshaping the aerospace landscape and advancing capacities like Starlink, though new space rivalries and militarization loom large.

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Thanks for reading,
Vuk