Live Pics: Introducing the Special Edition Tricompax x Peter Auto from Baltic

June 13, 1970, Le Mans, France: Rain. Lots of rain. The sounds of tires being changed in a hurry as the tarmac dries up. Engines are revving. Seat harnesses click into place. Overhead, the sounds of cameras rolling film and last-minute checks to a Porsche 917 with a camera rig strapped to it.

Where does fantasy end and reality begin? Is this a race? Is this a movie? It is both. It is the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, the running of which also served as the set for Steve McQueen’s iconic movie Le Mans (1971).
 

That golden era of racing – immortalized in a romantic way that only Hollywood can – has withstood the test of time. And now, here we are: Returning to the iconic watches of that golden era, ready to reimagine them with fresh inspiration. And this time, the reimagining comes from France and our friends at Baltic.
 

Meet, the special edition Baltic Tricompax x Peter Auto.

For those who are unaware, Baltic is one of the stand-out darlings of the micro-brand world. In fact, I have had the pleasure of knowing the founder of Baltic, Etienne Malec, since before the brand launched on Kickstarter in 2017. And unsurprisingly, Etienne “suffers” from the same affliction that so many of us do – a love of vintage cars and watches.
 

Indeed, it was through this love of vintage cars that Etienne met Patrick Peter of Peter Auto, who arranges some of the best historic racing events in Europe. Luckily for watch-lovers, the two united to honor the crossover in vintage cars and watches, releasing Baltic’s first-ever Tricompax chronograph, plus a duo of dash-mounted flyback rally timer stopwatches.
 

It’s obvious that every detail of this three-piece set was carefully considered. First, the shape of the hands on the chronograph mirror the hands of the stopwatches (albeit the chronograph’s hands are smaller and more elegantly finished). Then, all three pieces share a unique colorway of orange, yellow, black, and cream, but each piece apportions the hues in different yet complementary ways.
 

When put together, this set recalls iconic watch models of the golden era of motorsport (we’re looking at you, Paul Newman Daytona and Heuer “Orange-Boy” Autavia) but in a fresh way, including upgrading the watch to feature a manually wound Swiss-made chronograph movement from Sellita.