The timepiece presented this year has a date calendar featuring a display of the power reserve and retrograde date, designed to provide originality and satisfy its owner’s taste for beautiful mechanisms, elegance and a certain idea of balance. Baume & Mercier has always forged the image of a brand closely linked to life’s major events through its frequent involvement with the major celebrations in human existence. The Clifton Retrograde Date is undeniably one of those references that will defy time itself. With each detail of its construction, this watch proves how the spirit that determined its construction is perfectly in phase with the brand whose credo, since its foundation in 1830, is «accept only perfection; only manufacture watches of the highest quality.»

AN UNDERSTATED COMPLICATION

Alexandre Peraldi, Director of the Baume & Mercier in-house Design Studio, readily admits that «there is nothing more complicated than making a simple watch.» This 43 mm steel watch, housing a mechanical self-winding caliber, required a great deal of thought. The presence of many different functions on the dial meant achieving visual equilibrium so as to keep it perfectly legible. Baume & Mercier’s talent indeed lies precisely in finding that ideal balance.

Just one look at the Clifton Retrograde Date and its dial is enough to understand how aesthetic qualities and attention to detail satisfy the wearer’s interest and fascination for fine watchmaking. This timepiece, with its case borrowed from a 1950s Baume & Mercier watch, now an integral part of the museum’s collection, houses a beautifully made mechanical self-winding caliber visible through the transparent sapphire crystal case back. The sun satin-finished dial displays hours, minutes and seconds through the presence of a central seconds hand. But the caliber, fitted with a function plate, also displays the day in a small counter at 9 o’clock, the retrograde date at 3 o’clock and the power reserve at 6 o’clock. The winding level of the barrel spring guarantees that the watch will work for forty or so hours.

Clifton Retrograde Date Automatic, 43 mm, 10149 model

THE ART OF BALANCE

A cornerstone of the new 2014 products, the Clifton Retrograde Date highlights Baume & Mercier’s desire to offer lovers of fine watches a reference timepiece that stands out visually while offering a useful and accessible complication. The Clifton Retrograde Date is guaranteed to be water-resistant to 50 meters and is available in a brown alligator strap, closed by a triple folding buckle with security push-pieces.

Housed in a 43 mm diameter steel case, the Clifton Retrograde Date features generous dimensions, exceptional finishing and aesthetically appealing display appearing against a silver-colored sun satin-finished background. Inspired by a watch that experienced its heyday in the 1950s, this watch, traditionally driven by a mechanical self-winding caliber combined with an additional retrograde date function, boldly displays information that could be described as retro-futuristic. It thus combines features taken from the past without depriving itself of contemporary options that will capture the attention of watch lovers wanting to live in step with their century. The work accomplished for this watch, to be worn on a brown alligator strap closed by a triple folding buckle with security push-pieces, creates a watch with an inimitable style that many watch lovers, looking for an ideal timepiece, will not fail to notice.