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The passage of time - Baume & Mercier

Published: 24/01/2008 - Filed under: Archive » 2008 » February 2008 » Lifestyle » Features » Lifestyle » Watches »

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For classic Swiss timepieces that don’t cost the earth, this historic watchmaker could be the answer. Tom Otley takes time to find out.

While every watch brand likes to be thought of as value for money, Baume and Mercier has a better claim than most. Swiss-based and part of the Richemond group of luxury brands which also includes Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, IWC, Vacheron Constantin, Officine Panerai, A Lange and Söhne among its watch brands, Baume and Mercier is the entry level for those wanting to buy an internationally-known and respected watch.

The company has the history, having been around since 1830, and has several clearly defined collections ranging from the Hampton and Capeland watches, through to Riviera and Classima Executive, all of which are widely sold in boutiques around the world (see box). But what about this value for money bit? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms when the least expensive of its watches costs around £500, yet you can buy something that tells the time and straps to your wrist for £5.99?

“Watches are about much more than just telling the time,” says Michel Nieto, CEO of Baume and Mercier. “They say something about you. We are a good choice of watch for an Englishman, for instance. I think they respect quality. If they buy a shirt, they want to know it’s made out of a good material. We put a lot of attention into the details and we appeal to people who are the same way with their own business. We are not ‘show-off’ or ‘bling’.”

The value for money comes from having control over every aspect of the watch-manufacturing process: “from the initial design to the supply of parts, assembly, quality control and the distribution to the boutiques” is how Nieto puts it. He also points out that Baume and Mercier has its own design team in-house.

“If you look at the quality of the movements and dials of our watches, we are selling them too cheaply,” he says. “But we want people to trust us and to see that we respect them. If you buy one of our watches it means you join a sort of club –
if you see someone wearing one of these, then you know they like the same things that you do.”

Unlike many watch brands, there is also a selection of different sizes of watches within each collection, from mid-size up to the fashionably large faces in vogue at present. Bloomingdales in New York has a particularly good selection of the watches (and also Omega, Raymond Weil and Tag Heuer). Its lead-in price for a Baume and Mercier is around US$1,200, although there’s an attractive Baume and Mercier travel clock for US$395, and you can normally receive a 15-20 per cent reduction on these prices simply by asking.

Seeing the whole collection under glass cases in the mezzanine level watch department here, it’s easy to see there is a definite “house style”. Baume and Mercier design director Alexandre Peraldi says: “Our style is to be simple, but with a touch of originality. We aren’t like the extremely expensive watches, which have complications but often are not particularly well-designed aesthetically, or like Rolex, which has a very precise design – you can always recognise a Rolex. Instead we strive for something which is timeless.”

Consistency is obviously important to someone buying a luxury watch – it’s no good buying one if it was made on a Friday when everyone’s mind was on the weekend. But how can one watch appeal to people around the world? Wouldn’t it make sense to adapt to each particular market?

When Michel Nieto became CEO in 2004, this was the situation he inherited. “I took something like 400 flights in the first year, visiting 25 or 30 countries, and wherever our watches were sold I saw a different assortment being sold, supposedly because you had to appeal to each particular market to sell watches. So we might have gold watches, some with big sizes, some with leather straps and so on, but it’s a fallacy that this is the way to go. How do you develop a brand with 20 different faces?

“And for business travellers, there isn’t ‘one market’. People travel, and if they walk through the city centre and see Baume and Mercier being shown in one way there, then fly to another city and see it in another way, they are disturbed and confused: ‘Is the way I saw it abroad better than mine?’”

Consistent excellence is the aim in future. As design director Peraldi points out: “My brand will never be fashionable or sporty. We have never sold daring or futuristic watches. We aim to be classic and contemporary at the same time.”
Millionaires and watch collectors are of course attracted to “daring watches”, pieces with complications such as tourbillions, or limited edition watches, which command huge prices. Baume and Mercier doesn’t fall into that group as it is a volume seller of quality watches. But as Nieto says: “We sell hundreds of thousands of watches, but the world is a big place, with billions of people, so you will never see many of our watches in one particular town.” 

But when you do, they will all have something in common – no matter where you are in the world.

Visit baume-et-mercier.com.

THE ONE-STOP WATCH SHOPS

LONDON: Watches of Switzerland

Probably the best-known store in the UK for buying high-end watches, WoS has seven stores in London alone, including several on Bond Street and one in Knightsbridge. The chain is owned by the Icelandic Baugur group, which has also acquired Mappin and Webb, including its watch boutiques at Heathrow T3 and T4, and Goldsmiths. This gives the group a collective buying power unrivalled in the UK, which means it can get rare pieces and has a huge range of brands in its 14 stores. Specialities include Lange and Sohne, a brand which makes only 6,000 pieces a year (WoS has around 30 per cent of the UK allocation), Patek Philippe, Rolex and new brand Graham.

But with the dollar so weak against the pound, why buy in the UK? Over to general manager David Lindsay: “We still believe there is something special about customer service – after all, we don’t sell anything in our shops that people actually need. That said, all things being equal, people will shop on price. So we offer ‘plus one’. We’ve got the expertise, an unmatched brand portfolio, and people know we are not in this to make quick money. It’s all about long-term relationships with both the watch manufacturers and our customers.” Visit watches-of-switzerland.co.uk.

NEW YORK: Tourneau

There are more than 35 Tourneau or Tourneau Watch Gear stores across the US and Caribbean, including four in New York, as well as a new international store in Beijing, China. The flagship outlet is on 57th Street and is a tourist attraction in its own right, with over 8,000 watches in stock, in store, and over 100 brands.

The shop is over three floors, with the ground floor being the least expensive, rising in price to the finest watch brands on the third. On the way up, notice how the ceiling design has been inspired by horology. Unusually, although New York is currently inexpensive for visitors from the UK and eurozone, Tourneau doesn’t make a play on any price advantages it has over competitors, instead emphasising the size and range of its stock, and the fact that customers return to trade up and buy further watches.

As one of the largest customers of the watch manufacturers worldwide, it is able to source a huge range of rare watches, and stock complete ranges of over 100 brands. There is a pre-owned boutique within the store, as well as 12 watchmakers/repairers on hand, and it is also a big supplier of the exclusive Vertu phones. Visit tourneau.com.

Tom Otley

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