Baume & Mercier has a rich history in storied tradition of Swiss watchmaking, now over 170 years. In 1830, brothers Louis Victor and Pierre-Joseph-Celestin Baume established the Baume Freres Watch firm in the Swiss Jura region--the heart of the Swiss watch industry. As business flourished in Europe a grandson of the founder, William Baume met Paul Mercier, a great lover of the arts and in 1918 they created a business partnership. The contrast of the rigorous, precise Baume with the artistic, free thinking Mercier fused form and function to create the traditions of perfection, quality, and luxury that still exist today. In 1964, Baume & Mercier registered the Greek letter PHI as its brand logo, and it continues to be present on all Baume & Mercier designs. A symbol of the golden ratio and Leonard de Vinci's theory of proportion, it represents aesthetic elegance based on "divine proportions" that remain the brand's cardinal values.
the designers at Baume & Mercier utilize the goldmine of the company's over 175 years of watch-making history--from the oval of a crown to the graphics of a dial--to create the aesthetic contours of new timepieces. Inspired by a rectangular pink gold watch introduced by Baume & Mercier in 1960, the signature Hampton line of watches was created as a blend of watchmaking tradition and contemporary design. And the company still lives by the original slogan of the Baume brothers when they started Baume Freres: "Accept only perfection, only manufacture watches of the highest quality."