Whenever we look at brands which herald from the eastern part of the Asian continent, we immediately think we’re going to be presented with a 1:1 copy of another model. Oftentimes, that’s the case. And I routinely compare the work of truly independent microbrands (read: ones which are not linked to manufacturers) to whatever comes out of AliExpress specials, many of which are cheaper but better spec’ed Xero’d copies of already existing models. I don’t review these watches because I wish those brands could have worked a little harder in the design department to offer something even slightly different. I do believe that brands can create fresh designs and think outside the box, but I also believe that many brands are inspired by something that came before which they re-interpret to create a new iteration of said design. That is how the world works and you better accept it because you can’t change it. So being inspired by something is ok in my book whilst blatantly copying the work of someone else isn’t. 

This thinking has led us to look at Baltany twice already on Mainspring when we dissected the Retro 39mm Dirty Dozen S2081 and Tyler looked at the MilSubmariner S3075AB; two modern re-interpretions of vintage military watches the original brands don’t or no longer make. Indeed, the S2081 actually isn’t a 1:1 copy of any one of the twelve originals and the S30775AB is a watch Rolex hasn’t made in over 50 years. (Though they should.) So it’s all fair game, so to speak, to look at these watches, so it is again with the Military Chronograph S5045 we’re about to study under macro: it is inspired by a 2021 Hamilton Khaki Field Automatic Chronograph ref. H71706830 whilst it does a few things very differently which is why it’s here and why we are going to talk about it. Surprisingly perhaps, the price is not the first difference we’ll discuss because Hamilton and Baltany exist on different horological planes and arguing that you should get the Baltany because it is much cheaper than the Hamilton is a silly thing to say. It’s a package. 

Specifications 

What we’ve learned about Baltany already is the fact that the brand offers excellent value—the specs you get for how much you pay are incredible yet NOT the reason why you should place the S5045 in your basket. Yes, the specifications are mind-blowing and you pay little for them but it is also a matter of manufacturing, finishing, and quality control which most truly independent microbrands cannot offer and compete with. Baltany does not make perfect watches, neither do Omega or Tissot, but the brand manages to get really close to perfection for indeed a small amount of money—$148 USD to be exact at the time of publishing this review, which is a little insane. For this price the first thing you get is excellent lume which Baltany, as we already know, does very well: it’s everywhere and in generous quantities, with green-glowing compound on the hands and main printed hour markers and blue-glowing material on the small hands and all other printed markers. On lume alone the Baltany S5045 beats most microbrand watches I’ve ever reviewed.

So again, it’s not only about how little you pay for this watch compared to how much you’d pay for the Hamilton ($1,745 USD by the way,) but how much you get from it and how good it is. For example, the crystal is a slightly domed piece of sapphire with multiple layers of inner anti-reflective coating which does work very well. All six hands are polished whilst the 316L steel case received a fine scratch-resistant and light-cancelling sandblasted finish. The large 7.2mm time-and-date setting crown screws-down, so do the two chronograph pushers, along with the case-back for which we get a 100 meters depth rating. (I love it when brands add threaded chronograph pushers because they look cool and do indeed add a little bit of safety in regards to water resistance.) The case by the way measures 39mm in diameter, 46.3mm lug-to-lug, 12.2mm thick, which makes the S5045 much more wearable than the Hamilton which clocks in at 44 x 52 x 14.mm. Yikes, and just saying. That’s a huge difference in dimensionality and weight as the Baltany clocks in at 72g. 

There is one key reason why the Baltany is smaller and lighter than the Hamilton—the former is equipped with a mecaquartz chronograph caliber whilst the latter has a ginormous H-21 caliber based on a ETA/Valjoux 7750. Not only are mecaquartz chronograph calibers lighter and also more precise than their mechanical counterparts, but they are also more resistant to shocks and virtually impervious to magnetic fields which make them better choices for military tool watches. Just sayin’. So inside the Baltany we find the Seiko VK67 mecaquartz caliber, a remarkable three-register + date movement we encountered in the Draken Kruger V2. The VK67 has a stated accuracy of +/- 20 seconds per month, a battery life of +/- three years, and comes with a running seconds sub-register at six, a 60-minute totalizer at the 12, a 12-hour counter at the nine. So you get a full-fledged chronograph caliber to time events that last up to 12 hours, for example a very long hike in the Adirondack Mountains or an intercontinental flight to attend a watch fair on the other side of the world. 

Design

So is the Baltany S5045 actually inspired by or a copy of the Hamilton ref. H71706830? It’s the first option, obviously. Contrary to what some YouTubers might believe, Hamilton didn’t make these kinds of military chronographs in the past but only started to do so in 2021 when it released the aforementioned model*. Hamilton did make military chronos many decades ago but they looked like the popular Newmark 6BB Chronograph which itself looks like many other vintage military chronographs in the same way skin divers in the 1960s/70s all looked pretty much the same and were built with equal components and equipped with similar specifications. (Check out this article from our friends over at The Calibrated Wrist who wrote on this topic.) Therefore, the Baltany does borrow design elements from the Hamilton but the connection stops there: the design of the hands and hour markers is different enough to make the Baltany interesting on its own merits, even though the case on both models is rather nondescript yet super effective—sandblasted, no angles, long and narrow lugs. 

*The fact that something looks vintage doesn’t mean it existed before. 

The main visual interest of the S5045 therefore lies in how the brand went about laying out the dial. Designing three-register chronographs isn’t an easy task especially if you want it to be legible as there are many elements to integrate which all must play well with each other and each excel in clearly communicating a particular set of information. (The particularity of military watches.) First of all, the Baltany has a little something of World War II-era Type B fliegers on account of the large minute markers which replace the hour markers. There they are printed crisply in a large typeface and entirely made of BGW9 luminescent compound so that they appear white during the day and strongly contrast with the matte black dial. They are paired with thickly printed minute hash-marks also printed in BGW9 and which are demarcated from the hour rectangular-shaped hour markers printed in “Retro” SuperLuminova. The latter are themselves paired with the large sword-style hour and minute hands which are fully polished and lume-filled to the extreme. 

Therefore, telling the time during diurnal activities is as easy as it is to do so during nocturnal ones, which is a visual trademark of properly designed tool and military watches. But as we know, the Baltany S5045 does more than just indicating the time: it has a date aperture at the three o’clock, made of black printed numerals on a white disc so that it is exceptionally easy to know what date it is at-a-glance (for military strategic and everyday urban purposes alike.) Then there is the chronograph functionality, of course: each sub-register is equipped with a small arrow-shaped lumed and polished hand, completed with concave-shaped pinion caps (also present atop the main handset,) which are paired with a suite of small numerals and dashes printed in white to make it easy and second-nature to know the time to the precise second, and how many minutes and hours have elapsed since you started the chronograph and that the latter, which is also polished and decorated with a red arrow-shaped tip, started its repetitive journey around the dial. 

The Heart of the Matter

If the Baltany Military Chronograph S5045 Mecaquartz was really just a simple Xero’d copy of the Hamilton Khaki Field Automatic Chronograph ref. H71706830, then I would have literally been hard-pressed to have so many words to type about it. I do admit that the Baltany was inspired by the Hamilton but the two watches seriously exist on different horological planes: one is affordable, smaller, and more fun; the other is expensive, larger, and more serious. Not that military watches cannot be serious, but I feel that when you combine the Hamilton’s dimensions and price tag then it does feel a little bit more…serious…in the sense that I wouldn’t sport it to actually get things done with it and I’d instead reach for the Baltany. Again, the latter is not just a cheaper alternative to the Hamilton but a more sensical option for a military chronograph than it is—a type of watch designed at the beginning of times to be used, beaten, knocked against things, and sullied with mud and dust, and not to flex at watch meet-ups or swanky Swiss watch fairs. 

Oopsy Daisy. 

Conclusion 

After now having reviewed three Baltany’s and seeing what we’ve talked about here on Mainspring, it is clear that the brand likes vintage-looking military watches. For the incredibly small sum of $148 USD, the Military Chronograph S5045 is a solid piece of gear which packs a bunch of good specifications and which is, more importantly than its price and specs, surprisingly well manufactured and finished. Which is again something that most independent microbrand watches cannot offer below $1,000 let alone for less than 200 $1 bills. Something which sets apart brands such as Baltany from the multitude of brands which currently exist and make similar watches. Sometimes, the answer to “who makes the best military watches we actually feel comfortable using?” is “look at Baltany and the ubiquitous AliExpress brands.” And that is not a bad thing to admit to. 

Thanks for reading.