The Baume family first set up a watchmaking workshop in the Swiss Jura. Over the next three centuries, the workshop grew to become a factory, and by 1834 Baume Fräres was an officially registered company in the Swiss village of Bois. During the industrial revolution, the firm produced some of the world’s first chronographs and developed a new escapement which allowed for significantly thinner watches.

Today, Baume & Mercier continues to live up to the “phi” symbol which has graced its timepieces since 1964. This logo, inspired by the Greek letter, symbolizes the golden number, a theory of proportion and balance so perfect that Leonardo da Vinci renamed it the “divine proportion”. On a Baume & Mercier watch, the symbol stands for a set of fundamental values – the appreciation of work well done, exacting workmanship and a love of detail.