Baume & Mercier

The Baume brothers set up a watchmaking business at Les Bois in the Swiss Jura in 1830, later trading internationally as Baume & Co., with a London branch. In 1918 William Baume went into partnership with Paul Mercier in Geneva, and the firm of Baume & Mercier was registered there.

The company made dress watches, chronographs and, from the 1960s and 1970s, design-led models such as the Riviera of 1973. It became part of the Piaget group in 1965 and so passed into the Vendôme (later Richemont) group, which sold it to the Italian Damiani Group in 2026. Dates for individual watches in the catalogue come from the auction records.

How to recognise the work: watches made before 1918 are signed Baume, Frères Baume or, in the British market, Baume Brothers and Baume & Co.; the joint name Baume & Mercier, Genève appears afterwards. The firm specialised in wristwatches in unusual shapes from the 1920s, two-register chronographs from the 1940s, shaped models such as the Galaxie and Stardust in the 1970s, and the Riviera of 1973 with its twelve-sided bezel.

The brothers Louis-Victor and Célestin Baume opened the business at Les Bois in 1830 and a London branch in 1851, which carried their watches across the British Empire; by the late 19th century they were winning timekeeping competitions. The company says it received the Geneva Seal in 1919, a year after William Baume and Paul Mercier founded the Geneva firm.

Baume & Mercier joined the Piaget group in 1965 and with it passed to the Richemont group in 1988. In July 2026 Richemont completed the sale of the brand to Italy's Damiani Group.