Focus: Baume & Mercier Clifton Chronograph

As Baume & Mercier has demonstrated time and again, well-made luxury watches can be had at reasonable prices. The brand’s latest proof of this mantra (from the SIHH 2016) is the Clifton Chronograph Complete Calendar, which combines two of the arguably most popular complications – the chronograph and complete calendar – and tops them off with a moon phase display for a touch of whimsy.

A complete calendar shows the current day, date, and month, while a chronograph typically measures and displays elapsed time in hours, minutes, and seconds. Put the two complications together, and they will demand much finesse in dial design, what with the sheer amount of information that must be displayed. Baume & Mercier has done a brilliant job here by using just three sub-dials to do so without compromising on the watch’s legibility or elegance.

The time is read off the centrally mounted minutes and hours hands, while the small seconds hand shares a sub-dial at nine o’clock with the 24-hour indicator. To contrast with them visually, the chronograph hands are executed in blued steel in a familiar layout – a central chronograph seconds hand, with the minutes and hour totalisers at 12 and six o’clock respectively. Finally, there are the calendar indications. On this watch, the date is read off a ring printed on the dial’s edge, the day and month are displayed in two apertures at 12 o’clock, and the moon phase is shown at six o’clock.

With its carefully selected typeface and sober case design, the Clifton Chronograph Complete Calendar is a decidedly modern yet classy timepiece. Flip it over, and the workhorse Valjoux 7751 calibre can be observed through the sapphire crystal case back. The movement has been finished with several decorative techniques ranging from snailing and Côtes de Genève for the oscillating weight, to straight and circular graining and perlage for the mainplate and bridges.

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