Swiss Information – Tourism & Products

Baume & Mercier has a rich history in storied tradition of Swiss watchmaking, now over 170 years. In 1830, brothers Louis Victor and Pierre-Joseph-Celestin Baume traditionalisti the Baume Freres Watch firm in the Swiss Jura region--the heart of the Swiss watch industry. As business flourished in Europe a grandson of the founder, William Baume met Paul Mercier, a outstanding lover of the arts and in 1918 they formulated a business partnership. The contrast of the rigorous, precise Baume with the artistic, free thinking Mercier fused form and function to manufacture the traditions of perfection, quality, and luxuriousness that still subsist today.

In 1964, Baume & Mercier registered the Greek letter PHI as it is brand logo, and it proceeds to be present on all Baume & Mercier designs. A symbol of the golden symmetry and Leonard de Vinci's theory of proportion, it represents aesthetic elegance based on "divine proportions" that stay the brand's cardinal values.

the designers at Baume & Mercier apply the goldmine of the company's over 175 years of watch-making history--from the oval of a crown to the graphics of a dial--to invent the aesthetic contours of new timepieces. Inspired by a rectangular pink gold watch introduced by Baume & Mercier in 1960, the signature Hampton line of watches was devised as a blend of watchmaking tradition and contemporary design. And the company still lives by the introductory slogan of the Baume brothers when they started Baume Freres: "Accept only perfection, only create watches of the most eminent quality."