BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
The Baume et Mercier Clifton Baumatic was one of the more intriguing watches to have come out of SIHH 2018, offering consumers a great value proposition at the entry-level luxury price point. For 2019 the brand has gone ahead and updated the Baumatic collection by adding a beautiful new smoked blue dial to the mix.
The Fume or gradient effect makes a dial visual appealing through some nice color transition effects producing a wide gamut of color. The smoked blue dial of the Clifton Baumatic blue starts with a nice inky blue color at the center which then gradually fades into a deep shade of black towards the outer periphery of the dial giving it a ton of personality and character. As for the layout, it is identical to last year’s release with nicely polished applied markers, crisply printed minute track, a nice crosshair and nice color matched date window, all of which combines together to make this a clean and attractive dial.
The case features nice clean lines and has a diameter of 40mm which along with the curved lugs should make this watch wear comfortably on a variety of wrists. There is an antiglare scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass in the front and an exhibition window on the back as well. Water resistance is marked at 50 meters which is apt for a watch of this type.
Powering the watch is the brands in-house caliber BM13 which operates at a frequency of 4 HZ and offers a massive power reserve of 5 days. The movement has been nicely decorated with perlage on the bridges and Côtes de Genève striping on the skeletonized rotor and can be witnessed in all its glory through the sapphire crystal exhibition case back. It also packs some technical innovation in the form of a silicon balance spring and a high-performance escarpment making it anti-magnetic up to 1500 gauss which is good enough for daily life situations. The COSC version of the movement gets a further added advantage by being accurate between -4 to +6 seconds per day.
In all, the Baume et Mercier Clifton Baumatic blue is a great looking watch that adds a nice colorful twist to an existing collection of classic looking watches. The leather strap version of the watch would cost EUR 2,400 or EUR 2,800 (COSC), and the steel bracelet version of the watch would cost EUR 2,550 or EUR 2,950 (COSC). Visit Baume et Mercier here.
