I remember the good ol' days when watches were modern and design was fresh and enthusiastic. Boy, those where some crazy times. We sure have come a long way since then. Today things are better and we've learned our lesson. Don't try to improve upon watch design or create new things. No one wants to buy that. What people really want is old watches. Well, new old watches. Boy, I'll tell you... what a refreshing sight today's new watches are. No distracting innovation, just good old fashioned... "old fashioned."
So it makes me incredibly proud to introduce you to Baume & Mercier's "new" Hampton watch collection. Baume & Mercier really holds a special place in my heart for teasing me with the first watch I could truly not afford. That was a Capeland model back in the late 1990s. What a cool modern watch that was (back in those unfortunate times). Today's Capeland watch is thankfully stuck in a pre-World War II era.
According to Baume & Mercier the Hampton collection is based on a watch from the Baume et Mercier Museum from the 1940s - which is actually a nice looking piece. Using some inconceivable form of Swiss magic, the classic design is reborn mixed with the "discreet luxury" lifestyle of the New York Hamptons. The collection comes in a dizzying array of styles and options. There are gonna be around 20 variants at launch. This includes men's and women's models, as well as different movements options. The best part is Baume & Mercier's special little gift to me - the press release. Finding it as enriching as a morning cup of coffee and as enlightening as a school lesson, I'd like to share some of it with you. For the rest of this article you'll find selected excerpts for your reading pleasure and mental stimulation. The most entrancing part is just how unique these words are as applied to these timepieces.
Since 1830, Baume & Mercier has been designing watches of the highest quality that are endowed with lasting appeal thanks to their classic, timeless esthetic. For 180 years, men’s and ladies’ timepieces have followed one another in succession – sometimes iconic, sometimes inspired, but always dedicated to excellence and always with the same calling: the creations by the Swiss Maison d’Horlogerie have the ability to fix our milestone moments in life to our memory.
For your reference I have included two Hampton watches from the past. You can see the design evolution and devolution. On to the 2011 models. The men's watches come in three forms. There is the three-hand automatic, the chronograph, and the three-hand manually wound version in 18k rose gold. Each is sized slightly differently (probably due to differences in the sizes of the movements). The men's Hampton's automatic contains a Swiss ETA 2895 movement with subsidiary seconds dial and date. I am liking the sword style hands that remind me of all the Baume & Mercier watches I've loved the most in the past. This watch is 32mm wide by 45mm tall and 10.85mm thick.
No comments:
Post a Comment