Baume & Mercier William Baume Monopusher Chronograph Watch

A good looking classic watch does not need to cost a lot, but it sure can. Normally a Baume & Mercier watch goes for a reasonable luxury price, around $1,000 - $5,000. Some of the limited edition William Baume collection watches can fetch much more. They are limited editions because only a limited number of people are willing to shell out that much more.

In a 41mm wide 18k rose gold case, the watch has a beautiful guilloche engraved dial as well as gold hands and hour markers. I like how the markers are applied and classic looking, while there are some smaller Roman numerals on the dial to help with legibility. You'll notice that the lugs are totally classic looking and the case itself is polished gold surfaces that sandwich a nice brushed gold middle section. If Baume & Mercier needed to place "chronograph" on the dial, did it need to be so large? I think the retail price of about $30,000 would have made for a better piece of text in this position. Then you can show people that this is not your average Macy's Baume & Mercier timepiece.

The namesake of the watch regards the method of operating the 30 minute chronograph complication. Instead of two pushers, there is one pusher (built into the crown) that operates "start, stop, and reset." Nothing ultra complex, but there is a certain sexy sophistication to the style of movement. Which happens to be a Lajoux Perret caliber 5000, which is manually wound and has 42 hours of power reserve. The collection is limited to just 20 pieces.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.