Intro
The Riviera keeps serving as the flagship product for any brand’s innovations. In the last and previous years, Baume & Mercier pushed the envelope of the three-hander, either Sellita or Baumatic-powered, and 2025 is the year of the chronograph instead. Such strategy aims to enlarge the original range, once exclusively available on a ninety-degrees-rotated V counters displacement.
Also, the Riviera Chronograph comes as a bi-compax Flyback chronograph, paying tribute to the brand’s historic chronographs (coming up next), a first-ever symmetrical V-displaced counters layout and a panda dial. Here is a quick take on the new reference M0A10827. More reviews will follow soon.
The new Riviera Chronograph M0A10827 with a panda dial
Designers initially opted for a monochromatic rotated V-shaped configuration, thus not exploring the Riviera Chrono sub-collection’s full potential.
A new layout and a panda config give the watch a new breath. The three counters, with the running seconds’ one placed at nine, a thirty-minute chronograph at three and a chronograph hour counter at six, contrast a white base underneath, reproducing the Riviera’s signature arrow-shaped pattern.
Matching them is a black outer ring, where the “Swiss Made” and “Automatic” wordings took place. A thin black line also runs amidst the chrono pushers and pressed-in crown, adding to a robust and sleek design.
Applied Roman numerals, hour and minute hands, and the small continuous seconds one are filled with white Super-LumiNova, which glows blue in the dark. The case, whose main measures are a 41 mm diameter and a 13.94 thickness, fastens to a classic Riviera three-link bracelet featuring a quick-release mechanism and a double safety button “butterfly” clasp.
Size matters since its movement is quite chunky; the Riviera Chronograph Panda is powered by a customized edition of the Valjoux 7750, whose power reserve is 48 hours when fully wound.
(Photo credit: Peter Tung)
Giovanni Maria Di Biase @Horbiter®
