The Continuing trend Continues, Baume et Mercier up's their luxury game with a pared down new selection.

Baume et Merciers 180 year history has been a particularly chequered one, especially in the last 60 years.  

One of the many brands to suffer irrecoverable losses at the hands of the quartz 'revolution' in the 1970's they were forced to produce quartz movements, most of which were of the nasty cheap type.  In 1988 for a brief time the brand in fact ceased producing mechanical movements entirely.  Buyout after buyout has seen the brand change hands no less than four times since its inception, and at this moment in time it solely owned by the Richemont Group by way of Cartier.

This backwards and forwards of the brand left it for many years languishing in the bargain basement end of the luxury watch market, somewhere between Rotary and Raymond Weil, with a selection of pretty ordinary watches, predominantly quartz, and dubious heritage upon which to call.  Richemont now it seems, as with other brands in its group, have turned its sights onto Baume et Mercier, and a revitalisation has come to pass.  What was a tired brand with a bloated selection of so-so watches, has been stripped back to keen, lean simplicity, and the Wrist-watch range has been simplified to just four main ranges, and the former limited selection of mechanical watches has been completely inverted to be a limited selection of quartz watches.

Below is a selection of their ranges with a brief description of each.

This comes from the Capeland collection, this can be said to be their flagship collection, containing around 8 variations it is a classically styled chronograph, all mechanical and automatic movements, prices range from £3000 - £20,000 for the highest end model.

The classima collection represents a collection of simple elegant wristwatches, designed for formal wear or business wear.  the pictured model features a dubious depraz movement, a further example of Mercier's commitment to increase the quality of their brand.  Also within this collection is a vintage style ultra slim, which harks back to the 1965 ultra slim made when Piaget owned the brand.  Prices range from £2000 - £15,000, all movements are mechanical.

This comes from their Hamptons collection.  Baume et Mercier have featured square or rectangular watches in their collections for almost 50 years, so this collection represents the continuation of some actual heritage from the brand.  A mix of quartz and mechanical movements, this represents a sort of mid range, slightly younger edged collection from them. the pictured model is the top of the Hamptons line. prices range from £900 - £5000.

Finally we have the Linea  collection, clearly targeted at the female market, this contains a selection of twelve models, entirely quartz movements being the only range that bears that distinction in Merciers new round up.  offered in various fancy bands, chronograph or plain, steel, steel and gold or steel and diamonds with mother of pearl dial options.  Prices range from £850 - £5500.