Baume et Mercier Watches
The story of Baume & Mercier, a Swiss made chronograph brand, begins in 1830 when Brothers Louis-Victor and Célestin Baume opened a watch dealership in Les Bois, a village in the Swiss Jura. Carrying the motto “accept only perfection, only manufacture watches of the highest quality”, Baume and Mercier has gained reputation in the luxury watch industry around the world.
The brand has been launching different gorgeous timepieces featuring the latest innovations and complications along its road of development for over 190 years. To ensure the excellence in quality, every step of creation of its watch is controlled in-house and all the production is centralized in Switzerland, demonstrating the Swiss brand’s principle of “établissage”.
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History of Baume & Mercier Watches
A merge of tradition and innovation
Baume & Mercier watch has a very distinctive logo which correlates tightly with Greek. Way back to the 50s, the brand constantly adopted the equilibrium symbolized by the Greek letter Phi, that is the brand mark of Baume & Mercier. The outlook of the Greek letter Phi also determined the traditional round shape timepiece of Baume & Mercier, setting it as an iconic signature. The watch master merged its 190 years of manufacturing technique with state-of-art creativity, producing its famous chronographs and complications models.
Baume & Mercier strives for excellence in accuracy and fineness of a timepiece, demonstrating the spirit of its motto “accept only perfection, only manufacture watches of the highest quality”. The quality of each of its products is strictly controlled in house in its own workshops in Switzerland. Its skills in timing was well recorded in its history back to the 19th century. In 1892, Baume Brothers took part in a competition held by the Kew Observatory in Britain with a pocket-watch. The chronometer, turned out become the winning product in the competition, was equipped with a tourbillon movement which can have a precision remain unchanged for over ten years.
Various collections demonstrating the art of innovation
The designers of Baume & Mercier work very hard to utilize their creativity, creating various masterpieces equipped with different complications and functions such as moon phase or triple date displays. It launched a number of collections, each specialized in its own function and characteristic. Clifton Baumatic, Hampton, Classima and Capeland are one of those. Here we are getting to know them one by one.
Clifton Baumatic
Baume & Mercier introduced its first in-house mechanical self-winding caliber to Clifton Baumatic Collection. The collection has an excellent precision, with only -4/+6 seconds per day. It also has a high resistance to magnetic fields in daily life, guaranteeing a maintenance every seven years, much shorter than the three to five year maintenance cycle of traditional watches. Fitted with stainless steel or alligator strap, Clifton Baumatic demonstrates the most classic and elegant timepiece design for gentlemen. Apart from the iconic date aperture at the 3 o’clock position on the dial, some of the models in the collection are also fitted with the beautiful moon phase to add a touch of sophistication.
Clifton Club
Clifton Club is a collection tailor made for sport lovers, reflecting Baume & Mercier’s spirit in manufacturing timepieces with excellent precision. Some of the models in the collection is fitted with a rotating bezel for dual time presentation. More sophisticated design includes Tachymeter for speed monitoring, upgrading the collection as professional chronometers for sports. In 2015, Baume & Mercier became a partnership with the world famous American race car maker Carroll Shelby International, lifting its sports watches to the peak in the industry. To celebrate this achievement, the brand offers special and limited editions named for the classic sports car which is the most well known model in Shelby - Shelby Cobra. There are variations in different editions, but they all share the same iconic features - unique design of hour and minute hands, chronograph second hand in red and a Cobra shapred counterweight. The tachymeter set on the dial surface is encircled with a red inner edge, making the design even sharper than others.
Capeland
When we talk about limited editions with Shelby Cobra, Capeland collection in Baume & Mercier is definitely on that can’t be missed. Watches in Capeland are truly designed for contemporary gentlemen. The tachymeter scale, the red telemetric scale and the symmetrically displayed three sub-dials on the surface all reveal what a functional and outstanding chronometer should look like. The Capeland collection was officially discontinued by the brand, making the models even more attractive in the second hand luxury watch market.
A touch of elegance dedicating to ladies
Innovation is the drive of Baume & Mercier. Marquise, one of the most well known and successful model of the brand was launched in the late 40s. The model led to more creative and brilliant ideas in timepiece manufacturing, thus giving birth to more sophisticated ladies’ collections, leading a trend of women’s timepieces that are really tailor-made for ladies rather than a simplistic interpretations of masculine models. Hampton, Classima and Promese includes lady designs for the brand.
Hampton
The unique rectangular watch case makes it an icon of the Hampton collection. The alluring steel case is either fitted with a polished steel bracelet or a calfskin leather strap. To make the collection a representative of contemporary watch design, there are many variations, including two-tone versions, perfectly-cut diamonds set on the dial for lady watches, silver colour dial or natural mother of pearl dial and elegant Arabic numerals design etc.
Classima
The Classima of Baume & Mercier is not only a collection for men. The different types of complications and combinations make the collection more functional in use and interesting in design. There is also the Classima Lady collection dedicated to elegant and chic ladies in the modern world.
Promesse
A luxury collection specially designed for women. The mother-of-pearl dial fitted in a smaller size case is an icon of Promesse. To add a touch of elegance, the dial is fitted with Roman numerals and glittering diamonds.