SIHH19 – Clifton Baumatic
14.1.2019
THE CLIFTON BAUMATIC COLLECTION EXTENDS TO INCLUDE FIVE NEW MODELS
The five Clifton Baumatic watches, powered by the BM13 version of the Baumatic calibre, combine performance, technical achievement and refined design. They express a combination of watchmaking expertise and contemporary style, which has characterised the Baume & Mercier approach for 189 years.
This year, the collection expands with a red gold case and a gradated blue dial. The Clifton Baumatic is the essential companion for aesthetes with assertive tastes in perpetual pursuit of performance and innovation.
CLIFTON BAUMATIC COSC OR ROSE (PINK GOLD)
The dial, adorned with riveted gold hour markers, has a “warm white” hue with a porcelain-effect finish in perfect harmony with the 18-carat pink gold case. A discreet anthracite crosshair on the dial symbolises the COSC (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute) certification. The second hand, also anthracite, contrasts with the gold hour and minute hands. With its 39 mm satin-finished red gold case, this is the ideal watch for men seeking performance and classical elegance.
Reference: 10469
CLIFTON BAUMATIC CADRAN BLEU (BLUE DIAL)
With this model, the Baume & Mercier Maison reveals a blue-to-black gradated sunburst dial featuring a white minute track and rhodium-plated hands. The 40 mm steel case offers harmonious proportions. On the COSC-certified models (Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute), a discreet white crosshair appears on the dial.
The Clifton Baumatic cadran bleu is available in two versions: one is mounted on an interchangeable black alligator leather strap with a pin buckle and one features a five-row steel bracelet with a triple folding clasp and security push-pieces.
This self-winding movement has a touch of originality and is suitable for any occasion.
References: 10510 (leather) and 10511 (steel). COSC models 10467 (leather) and 10468 (steel)
DESIGN AND DETAILS
The dial of each Clifton Baumatic model is enhanced by an oversized date aperture at 3 o’clock and topped with a domed anti-glare sapphire crystal to ensure better readability.
The sapphire crystal case back reveals the calibre’s refined finishes: circular-grained bridges and a sand-blasted, snailed baseplate. The openworked, steel- or gold-toned tungsten oscillating weight is adorned with a decoration combining Côtes de Genève with snailing.
Within the movement, the lyre is shaped like the Phi character, the Baume & Mercier symbol representing the Maison’s quest for perfection.
The interchangeable leather straps of the Clifton Baumatic collection enable each one to adapt to various whims.
THE BAUMATIC CALIBRE
The self-winding Baumatic movement ensures optimal reliability. In addition to 120 hours (5 days) of autonomy, Clifton Baumatic watches offer great chronometric precision (–4/+6 seconds per day for the COSC-certified models). They resist to the main magnetic fields of daily life. These models only require maintenance service once every seven years rather than three to five years recommended for a traditional watch. Any high watchmaking aficionado will appreciate these remarkable achievements.
BAUME & MERCIER
Since its foundation in 1830 in the Swiss Jura, Baume & Mercier has been putting technical and aesthetic innovation at the heart of its creations. In keeping with its motto, “Accept only perfection; only manufacture watches of the highest quality” and based on 189 years of heritage, the Maison is a Swiss watchmaking pioneer. Its international renown is forged on the development of high-performance contemporary watches that make ideal daily companions.
TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
In a perpetual pursuit of technical innovation, the Maison became the first watchmaker to introduce the Lépine calibre to the Jura in 1840, revolutionising watch reliability and sturdiness. The use of this calibre, which required innovative changes in work methods, contributed to the Maison’s success.
During the second half of the 19th century, Baume & Mercier acquired solid international renown. The Maison is reputed for its chronographs and grand complications, and in particular its minute repeaters, perpetual calendars and tourbillons. Its time-measuring instruments have earned it a number of awards and medals. Indeed, the Maison received the Gold medal at the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880 and that of London in 1885, and again at that of Chicago in 1893. In 1892, the Maison beat all records for precision at the chronometry competition of the Kew Observatory in England with a pocket stopwatch featuring a keyless winding mechanism and a tourbillon-regulated calibre. That was a long-lasting record since it remained the most precise watch in the world for 10 years.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Baume & Mercier proposed ultra-thin watches among the slimmest of the time. Then, in 1965, the Maison developed an ultra-thin self-winding movement equipped with an off-centre oscillating weight, the “Roto Planétaire”: for a self-winding watch with a calendar, it was the slimmest of its time.
With the tuning fork watch “Tronosonic”, Baume & Mercier confirmed its foothold in modernity and resisted the quartz crisis that appeared at the end of the 1970s with the wave of quartz watches, followed by that of digital watches, including those with liquid crystal displays.
With the “Avant-Garde” watch, released in 1986, Baume & Mercier became one of the very few brands to use tungsten carbide for its watch cases and straps, since the material is very difficult to shape. On the other hand, the Maison was the only brand to integrate elements in 18-carat gold into its straps, an innovation at the time.
In 2018, in a combination of mechanical innovation and watchmaking heritage, Baume & Mercier presented the Clifton Baumatic collection which includes the self-winding in-house calibre Baumatic BM12-1975A, once again asserting the brand’s expertise in combining style with cutting-edge technology.
In 2019, the Maison reveals a new version of its in-House Baumatic calibre, the BM13-1975A, which expresses a commitment to client expectations without ever compromising on quality.