Baume et Mercier Launch Riviera Baumatic 10742 Perpetual Calendar Limited Edition

Baume et Mercier aren’t exactly strangers to the Perpetual Calendar, having a couple in their collections already, but still, they’re not the first brand that comes to mind when you think of haute horology either. Now they’ve expanded their calendar collection with a new limited edition, the Riviera Baumatic 10742 Perpetual Calendar.

As part of the Riviera collection, this is part of Baume et Mercier’s integrated bracelet sports watch line. That means it has a 40mm diameter in steel with a combination of polished and satin brushed finishing and a broad dodecagonal bezel. It has incredibly strong seventies influences with that industrial Genta-esque aesthetic seen on watches like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, what makes this watch stand out from other Rivieras is the dial, which is where we find the perpetual calendar display. It consists of four subdials nested around the central hours, minutes and seconds hands. Those subdials are month and leap year indicators at 12 o’clock, date at 3, moonphase at 6 and days of the week at 9.

The Riviera Baumatic 10742 Perpetual Calendar has a gilded dial in a yellow gold tone with vertically brushed finishing. I kind of feel like it would look a little better if it was a salmon rose gold rather than the pale yellow they’ve gone for. But then again, maybe salmon would make it look a little too classic instead of the current vibrant sporty edge it has. So on balance I’m a fan.

Beneath the surface is the Baumatic calibre, an automatic movement with a 5-day power reserve and equipped in this instance with a Dubois-Dépraz perpetual calendar module. The exhibition caseback reveals its golden rotor and perlage finishing, which is a type of circular graining that to be honest I haven’t seen used on many watches this year. It feels like it’s fallen out of favour, replaced by Côtes de Genève – it’s quite nice to see it used here.

The Baume et Mercier Riviera Baumatic 10742 Perpetual Calendar Limited Edition is priced at £16,990 and is limited to just 50 pieces. That’s obviously vastly more expensive than your average Riviera but it’s important to keep it in context, for a perpetual calendar it’s an absolute bargain. It’s also not as pricy as their other perpetual calendars despite being much cooler, although that probably has more to do with the steel case.