Founded in 1830, Baume & Mercier is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer. Cartier and Piaget and Pichemont currently own the company. The company is well known in Europe, and the rest of the world, and is represented in over 75 different countries. 200,000 luxury watches are produced by Baume & Mercier every year.

Baume & Mercier Watch

In the village of Les Bois, the Swiss Jura, was where the Baume family founded the Societe Baume. Being active in watchmaking for quite some time, starting with pocket watches, the Baumes were off to a a good start. Joseph Celestin Baume started business relations in England in 1844, expanding his family’s influence. The family gained influence as far away as Australia and New Zealand with watches such as Waterloo, Diviko, and Sirdar.

In 1893, one of the family’s timepieces won a timing competition at the Kew-Teddington Observatory, scoring an incredible 91.9 out of 100. William Baume met the watch maker Paul Mercier at the Geneva watch and jewelry shop in Haas in 1912, officially beginning what is today known as Baume & Mercier. They were awarded the coveted Poincon de Geneve in 1921 for their flawless quality products. William Baume retired in 1937, and Paul Mercier did the same shortly after.

Around the same period, jewelers Constantin de Gorski and Robert Peron joined the company. The company then shifted its focus on conventional men’s watches, ladies’ jewelry watches, and sports chronographs. The Piaget family purchased the Baume & Mercier company in the mid 1960s. Shortly after that, one of the world’s thinnest calendar watches was produced by the company. The company then switched to tuning fork movements and moved to quartz movements after 1970. Today, the company continues to produce some of the highest quality watches in the world and has watches sold all around the world.