Baume & Mercier: “to produce watches of the highest quality only”
The Baume & Mercier brand belongs to the Richemont group, one of the world’s leading companies in the field of luxury brands. The Group includes many of the most prestigious jewelry and watch houses, such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Officine Panerai, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and others. The craftsmen of each manufactory do everything to preserve the heritage and traditions of jewelry and watchmaking, founded in the 19th century. At the same time, designers are constantly finding new solutions that meet the spirit of the times and the challenges of our time. After all, the watch house Baume & Mercier is the sixth oldest in the world! Its history began in 1830 in Geneva, and since then the creators of the collections have followed the constant principle voiced by one of the founders of the company: “to produce watches only of the highest quality!”
The history of the Baume & Mercier watch house dates back to 1830, when Louis Victor and Joseph Celestan Baume founded the Baume Brothers company in the small Swiss village of Le Bois. Over time, the company has gained international recognition due to the excellent quality of its watches and the innovations used in their production.
Between 1885 and 1910, the manufacture received many awards, including the prestigious award at Kew Observatory in England for the best chronometer movement. In 1910, William Bohm, grandson of Louis Victor, took over the family business. He settled in Geneva, where he began collaborating with Paul Mercier, a charismatic and influential figure of his time.
A talented businessman of Russian origin (Pavel Cheredichenko – that was his name before he accepted Swiss citizenship and took the surname of his French mother), Paul Mercier – and William Bohm, who treats the intricacies of watchmaking with the utmost care – their qualities harmoniously complement each other .
This partnership led to the creation of the Baume & Mercier brand, Geneva, in 1920 – a period of unprecedented growth in technical and design thought. Strictly following the traditions laid down by his grandfather and father, and passionately devoted to the principle of “producing watches of only the highest quality,” William Bohm ensured that Baume & Mercier received the Hallmark of Geneva in 1921, the highest degree of recognition in the world of haute horlogerie. Today, Baume & Mercier watches are sold in more than 100 countries, on 5 continents, in 3,000 stores.
Baume & Mercier and the Phi symbol
In 1963, the watch house decided to find a symbol that would become a distinctive sign of the company and would be in complete harmony with the main idea of the brand. Such an emblem in 1964 became the Greek letter Phi – the “golden number” (this is what Leonardo da Vinci called Phi in his manual “Divine Proportion”). This letter was used by Greek architects to achieve ideal proportions – because it is geometrically symmetrical. And Baume & Mercier watches match this impeccable balance.
For over 170 years, the watchmaking excellence demonstrated by the Bohm brothers in 1830 has been honed with each model released under the Divine Proportion mark. Each collection expressed its era, becoming the hallmark of Baume & Mercier. Today, the Watch House, which has been proud of its commitment to the traditions of fine watchmaking for almost two centuries, boldly looks into the future, keeping up with the times and instantly responding to the challenges of the third millennium.
The Baume family moved to the Swiss Jura Mountains, where in 1610 Paul and Jean Baume founded the district of Le Bois. Since then, this area has become the center of offices and factories for the largest companies in the Swiss watch industry. 1830 Victor and Pierre Baume found the company “Brothers Baume”. Their unchanging principle of “quality + innovation” is still the slogan of the masters. 1893 Triumph of the Bohm brothers’ watch at Kew Observatory in England: the most prestigious award for the best chronometer movement. The company competed in competitions organized by the Kew Observatory and in 1887 won the highest award for its split-seconds chronograph. And in 1893, the tourbillon from the Baume brothers received an unprecedentedly high score – 91.9 out of 100 maximum possible.
Between 1885 and 1910, the Watch House received many awards, including five gold medals at exhibitions in Paris, London, Philadelphia and Geneva. 1920 The Baume & Mercier brand is born. William Baume, a talented watchmaker, grandson of one of the founders of the company, and Paul Mercier, a great admirer of art, officially registered the Baume & Mercier brand. 1921 Less than a year after the official registration of the company, it receives the Hallmark of Geneva – the maximum degree of recognition in the world of haute horlogerie. It was William Bohm who secured this award for Baume & Mercier, strictly following the traditions laid down by his grandfather and father, and passionately devoted to their principle of “producing only watches of the highest quality.” 1973 The Golden Rose Award in Baden-Baden is awarded to Galaxie women’s watches.
