SIHH 2015 – Baume & Mercier Classima – Hands-On with live photos, specs and price

Baume & Mercier is known for its simple, elegant and interesting offer. Especially made to be gifted – to celebrate a graduation, a success or any nice event of a life – they are perfect daily watches for those who just want a reliable and pleasant companion. One of the collections is truly inspired by this concept. It’s called the Baume & Mercier Classima and for the SIHH 2015, it receives a interesting update. 

Compared to the rest of the brand owned by the Richemont Group (that also holds Lange & Sohne, Jaeger-Lecoultre or IWC), Baume & Mercier could be seen mainly as the entry-level brand. For sure, if you look at the rest of the Richemont portfolio, B&M is far from the crowd of ultra-complicated and highly-priced watches. However, Baume & Mercier should not be relegated to a low-end status. It offers the opportunity to enter the world of classic, timeless and elegant watches for a reasonable price and answers to a demand of timepieces made to be discreet gifts.

Together with the vintage-inspired Clifton and the square-shaped Hampton, the Baume & Mercier Classima is a simple and discreet watch that can easily be used with every outfit, in every condition, at any age. As its name suggests, the Classima is classic in every way – which doesn’t mean that it’s empty of interest. This classic offer from B&M is receiving a facelift for the editions with automatic movement. The case is now measuring 40mm (instead of 42mm) and is modernized with a more contemporary and clean shape. The bezel is now slightly larger, unlike the lugs that are slimmer, with a tapered shape. This rather elegant case is available in two editions: full stainless steel or two-tone, with a red gold bezel.

The dial also follows this cleaner trend, with a central part that is still featuring a line guilloché but more spaced than previously. The applied indices and Roman numeral also benefits from this makeover, with a cleaner and slimmer shape. This dial also gets rid of the numerals on the external minute track. All of this gives a both more elegant, discreet and refined design. The full stainless steel edition comes with silver applied indices and blued hands, while the two-tone edition has some matching gold hands and indices.

The Baume & Mercier Classima comes on a choice of alligator straps (brown on the steel edition and black on the two-tone edition) or with a metallic strap. It comes with a full polished finish (like the case) and features gold intermediate links on the two-tone edition. Behind the dial ticks a solid, reliable and well-known movement, that can be seen from the sapphire caseback. The Baume & Mercier Classima Automatic is now featuring a Sellita SW200 (a clone of the ETA 2824-2) that will run for years. It features the hours, minutes and seconds on the central axis plus a date functions in a window at 6 an boasts 38 hours of power reserve. It comes with a rotor decorated with Geneva Stripes and the logo of the brand.

The Baume & Mercier is certainly a very interesting offer for the non-aficionados that are looking for an elegant daily beater or a classic watch to offer. It’s a perfect daily watch for a reasonable price – the stainless steel edition on alligator strap is priced at 1.990 Euros.