Free-standing monodomain thick films of three liquid crystalline compounds were examined by x-ray scattering. These compounds exhibit a unique enantiotropic crystal-B–hexatic-B–smectic-A phase sequence with no evidence of herringbone order. The hexatic order parameter C6 changes in the hexatic phase with critical exponent β=0.15±0.03. Temperature dependence of the in-plane positional order correlation length suggests a strongly first-order hexatic-B to crystal-B phase transition with indiscernible enthalpy change.