A tribute to time

One of the 10 oldest Swiss watch brands Baume & Mercier recently came out with a very limited edition as a way of paying tribute to its founder William Baume.

It all started 178 years ago, when the Frères Baume watchmaking company was founded in the Swiss Jura village of Les Bois by Louis Victor Baume. In 1918, the company became Baume & Mercier in Geneva under the leadership of William Baume, representing the third generation of a watch company that was one of the most important of its era.

William ushered the company founded by his grandfather Louis and grand-uncle Pierre Joseph Célestin Baume firmly into the 20th century. He was the mastermind behind the modern-day brand and its successful bid to earn the watch industry's highest quality certification, the prestigious Poinçon de Genève, which was granted to the company in 1921.

An exceptionally talented watchmaker driven by the innovative ideas characteristic of the early 20th century, William Baume joined hands with watchmaker and jeweller Paul Mercier in 1918 to create the Baume & Mercier brand in Geneva.

Now this new collection is a tribute to this master watchmaker. The three models of the collection – issued in limited editions – evoke the brand's origins through complications inseparably entwined with its historical heritage.

However, the pick of the lot is the red gold William Baume Tourbillon that has been priced at around Dh247,000 and is limited to just a precious 10 in number.

Philippe Carion, Baume & Mercier Brand Manager told Emirates Business: "The tourbillon of this watch defies gravity. This most prestigious and trickiest to make of all watch complications, it features a rotating carriage designed to compensate for the effects of gravity on the precision of a watch. This watch is a tribute to William Baume because in 1892, he beat the absolute record for precision in the Kew Observatory chronometry competition with a tourbillon chronometer.

"This watch has a mechanical hand-wound movement, with a tourbillon at nine o'clock and small seconds at six o'clock. It has a 43 mm red gold case, a dial with "vieux panier" guilloché motif, and a hand-sewn alligator leather strap. This is an exceptional model that is issued in a limited edition of 10.

"The Baume brand had distinguished itself worldwide since 1830 by the excellence and innovation displayed in its timepieces. It won gold medals at Universal Exhibitions in Paris, London, Philadelphia and Geneva with its complication watches – Tourbillons, Minute Repeaters and Perpetual Calendars.

"In fact, the absolute precision record that William won in 1892 remained unbeaten for 10 years because of its keyless chronometer with tourbillon escapement. Such is the rich horological heritage that the William Baume Collection now celebrates by offering contemporary reinterpretations of Haute Horlogerie models that are an integral part of the Baume & Mercier heritage."

The other two watches in the collection include the William Baume Ultra-thin, which has a mechanical hand-wound movement and is just two mm thick. With a 41 mm red gold case and a dial with "vieux panier" guilloché motif and a hand-sewn alligator leather strap, this watch is available in a limited edition of 178 pieces.

The William Baume Retrograde's seconds display divides time into two. Its large hand counts off 30 seconds over a graduated arc of a circle, before returning instantly to its starting point to measure the 30 following seconds.

This model also displays a large date function appearing through a double window at 12 o'clock.

So treat yourself to this tribute to time before it vanishes into a collector's watch safe.

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