By John Galt
Baume & Mercier have been quietly going about the task of affordable Swiss timepieces for a while now with their excellent Clifton and Capeland models to name a couple with their amenable semi-casual feel for everyday wear but now have released this dress watch with a hint of everyday.
The stainless steel Case is 40mm and only 9mm thick, so it’s thin enough to slide under shirt cuffs, but still has enough presence with its polished look not to be totally discreet.
The dial on the Classima is a lovely opline silver colour with some great eye-catching elements. Instead of going with the traditional dress watch route with a plain dial the Classima has a layered dial with raised outer edge and applied Roman numerals. The centre of the dial is finished in vertical guilloché giving the dial a nice curved feel, in my opinion it really works and gives it a clean, dressy appeal. The blue feuilles hands are just bright enough to give the dial some identity without being too distracting. The date window is at the usual 3pm and is nicely cut into the raised perimeter with black on white numbers.
Turning the piece over you are greeted by an exhibition case back showing a Sellita based automatic movement, a cousin of the ETA 2824 which Baume&Mercier have modified slightly by decorating it and adding their own rotor. The power reserve is a good 38 hours and beats at 28,800bph and will give the seconds hand a lovely smooth sweep.
No pricing has been released yet but my guess will be around the USD2,000 mark which will be a great price for this type of piece.
Conclusion
I personally like the way Baume & Mercier go about their business releasing reasonably priced pieces with a definite luxury feel. Would I suggest Baume&Mercier to someone that asked about getting their first Swiss watch? I most certainly would. For more info, please visit baume-et-mercier.com
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John Galt – Contributing Editor
John Galt caught the horology bug 4 years ago on his first visit to a London watch show and has snowballed since; John has become an avid writer and blogger of timepieces of all kinds, from everyday timepieces to modern Luxury Haute Horology, his favorite brands being HYT and Greubel Forsey that push the bounders of modern watch-making. John keeps a keen interest in the UK watch scene with their many emerging brands and timepiece’s. John Galt currently contributes watch related articles for online publications in the UK and USA. You can follow John on Twitter @johng73 Read his articles here.
