Baume & Mercier watches: history, innovations and best models
Baume & Mercier watches: history, innovations and best models
The origins of Baume & Mercier.
Baume & Mercier was founded in 1830 under the name "Frères Baume" (Baume Brothers), named after the two founders, the brothers Louis-Victor and Célestin Baume, who inaugurated a watch shop in the Swiss Jura. Their activity grew progressively thanks to successful products that earn the brand a reputation of avant-garde and reliable watchmaker.
Dynamic and very active across Europe, the Baume brothers later opened an office in London, a city that represented at the time a key market and the brand gained a solid reputation as a refined chronograph maker, which still holds today.
The birth of thebrand took place at the beginning of the twentieth century when William Baume partnered with PaulMercier thus founding the brand Baume & Mercier, based in Geneva. The brand soon achieved notoriety and respect in the world of wristwatches thanks to products that confirmed once again the excellent results obtained by Baume watches, in terms of chronometric precision and reliability.
Baume & Mercier started producing watches that set trends and was also one of the most prolific manufacturers of women's watches, a category that still covers a significant part of the brand's offering today.
Among the most sought-after wristwatches, we remember for example the 1920 Bagnoire, the Linea or the Stardust, last but not least the 1971 Tronosonic but also pocket watch with tourbillon. In 1978 they presented the Riviera, a sports watch with a steel case and a dodecagonal bezel that became quite iconic.
In 1988 Baume & Mercier was acquired by the Richemont Group, already an owner of prestigious brands like Cartier, Panerai, IWC, Montblanc and, more recently, presented the Clifton collection launched in many variations, from automatic only time watches to gold hand-wound or perpetual calendar models, before introducing the Clifton Club collection.
In recent years it also signed two important partnerships with iconic American brands like Shelby Cobra, now owned by Ford, and Indian Motorcycles, unveiling in both cases dedicated chronograph collections, in line with its tradition of being a chronograph maker.
In 2018 the brand presented an entirely new collection, the Clifton Baumatic, that features an innovative automatic caliber with excellent technical features and a unique quality to price ratio, including a full five-year warranty.
We have given extensive coverage of the brand over the years, both during the various editions of SIHH and during the year, especially on the occasion of events like the ones linked to the partnership between the brand and the MitJet championship or the Nascar Whelen Euro Series, for example.
We also followed the evolution of the brand from a strategic point of view and interviewed the current CEOGeoffroy Lefebvre at lastSIHH and the previous one, Alain Zimmermann, in Milan, either.
Since 2019, the brand has strongly focused on the Clifton Baumatic collection and has focused all its efforts on product contents, rather than external partnerships and co-branding activities.
With the launch of the Clifton Baumatic, held during the SIHH 2018, Baume & Mercier brings the brand into the future by anticipating new trends in watchmaking. The Clifton Baumatic showcases exclusive new features that make this collection stand out equally in terms of product and service.
It boasts an above-average resistance to magnetic fields geared towards protecting timing precision rate against the effect of most electronic devices we daily use like tablets and microwave ovens, for example.
It also offers a longer power reserve and reduced maintenance intervals over time. This project is a breakthrough for the brand and the segment it belongs to.