Description
French dress-watch microbrand Baltic has unveiled its most unusual product yet: the Rally Timer Tour Auto 2026, a mechanical dashboard set comprising a flyback monopusher stopwatch and a separate dashclock, designed to be bolted into the cabin of a vintage rally car. The set is produced in collaboration with the Tour Auto Optic 2000 historic rally and is limited to 300 sets at EUR 825 (excl. taxes) / EUR 990 (incl. taxes).
This is not a wristwatch product — it is a pair of bolt-in dashboard instruments, made from brushed and polished stainless steel, fitted with domed Hesalite crystals, and built around two manually-wound mechanical movements: the Hanhart Calibre 122 (stopwatch, with flyback) and the Engloong Calibre 6497 (dashclock). At this price, the set is the most accessible mechanical dashboard timing solution currently in production for classic-car owners.
Design
Each instrument measures 60 mm in diameter by 18 mm in thickness — large enough to read at speed but compact enough to fit on the dashboard of a 1960s GT or saloon. Both housings are made of brushed and polished stainless steel and are protected by a domed Hesalite (acrylic) crystal, evoking the optics of period dashboard chronographs.
The stopwatch dial features a centre-mounted seconds counter and a cream 30-minute totaliser at 12 o'clock, with the five-minute intervals demarcated in red, navy and sky blue — a classic motorsport-livery palette. A single oversized chronograph pusher sits at 10:30, controlling the flyback function. The dashclock dial is more restrained: a cream small-seconds at 6 o'clock with a red crosshair graphic, a printed minute track, and matching steel construction. Both instruments are mounted on a brushed steel plate that allows the set to be installed as a coordinated pair.
Specifications
- Set: Flyback stopwatch + dashclock + brushed steel mounting plate
- Each instrument: 60 mm × 18 mm; brushed and polished stainless steel; domed Hesalite crystal
- Stopwatch dial: Centre seconds, cream 30-min totaliser at 12 with red/navy/sky-blue 5-min intervals; single chronograph pusher at 10:30; flyback
- Stopwatch movement: Hanhart Calibre 122 — manual-wind monopusher flyback chronograph, ~6 h power reserve
- Dashclock dial: Cream small-seconds at 6 with red crosshair
- Dashclock movement: Engloong Calibre 6497 — manual-wind, ~42 h power reserve
- Production: 300 sets, individually numbered
- Price: EUR 825 (ex-tax) / EUR 990 (incl. taxes) — circa USD 965
What's Exciting
Mechanical dashboard timing instruments are a niche but historically significant category. Heuer Monte Carlo, Heuer Master Time, and Heuer Rallymaster sets are now four-figure collector items at auction; functioning vintage examples are scarce and command serious money. Baltic — at EUR 825 ex-tax — making a true Hanhart-flyback set with a brushed-steel mounting plate, individually numbered, in only 300 examples is an instant collectible for the Tour Auto and Mille Miglia community.
The product also signals Baltic's positioning beyond wristwatches: at this price, the set is roughly equivalent to a single Bicompax wristwatch, but it occupies a category — installed dashboard instruments — where Baltic faces virtually no competition. With 300 units allocated and the existing Tour Auto / Mille Miglia / Goodwood Revival demand pool, this set will not stay in stock long.
History
The Tour Auto Optic 2000 is a French historic rally that traces its roots to the original Tour de France Automobile (1899), making it one of the longest-continuous motorsport events in Europe. It runs each spring across France in five stages and approximately 2,000 kilometres of mixed circuit and stage driving. Baltic — founded in 2017 in Paris by Etienne Malec — has been the Tour Auto's official timing partner since 2024, when it released the Tricompax Tour Auto 2024 (a wristwatch limited to 100 pieces). The Rally Timer Tour Auto 2026 is the brand's first dashboard-mounted instrument package and its first product built around the Hanhart Calibre 122.
