Baume & Mercier Shrinks the Clifton QP to 40mm and Pairs It With a Better-Value 39mm

Over the past year, Baume & Mercier has been doing some good work making the Clifton collection tighter and more modern, and these two ice-blue limited editions continue on that path. But I don't think it's just a dial change. If I'm not mistaken, the big news is the perpetual calendar, which previously came only in 42mm precious metal and now gets a 40mm steel case. Add to that a 39mm time-and-date model launches next to it, and this is a very nice pair.

The time-and-date measures 39mm wide and is 11.22mm thick; while the perpetual is 40mm wide and 12.9mm thick. Quite reasonable on the QP. Both are made out of steel, with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces, a domed sapphire with anti-reflective coating on both sides, a semi-recessed crown and a display back secured by four screws. Water resistance is 50 meters for both watches.

The blue is pale and cool, with a guilloché pattern that's stamped rather than engine-turned. At €3,700 that's perfectly fair. At €19,500 it's harder to accept, but you have to account for the movement. The 39mm keeps the black crosshair, snailed minute track, long trapezoid markers, a single numeral at 12 and a matching date window at six. The perpetual fills the same surface with snailed sub-dials for day, date, month and leap year, a blue moonphase at six and four Arabic numerals. Red accents on the 31 and the leap-year marker help with visibility on a busier dial.

Both are equipped with the Baumatic movement, built by ValFleurier: calibre BM13-1975 A in the 39mm, BM13-1975 AC2 in the perpetual, which adds a Dubois-Dépraz calendar module to the same base. Each beats at 4Hz with 120 hours of reserve, which is great. The off-the-shelf module does make the perpetual's price steep, given Frederique Constant sells a steel perpetual with an in-house calendar for roughly half. The 39mm comes on the integrated three-row bracelet. The perpetual gets a blue square-scale alligator strap with a steel pin buckle.

The Clifton Baumatic 39mm (ref. M0A10870) is priced at €3,700 and the Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar 40mm (ref. M0A10872) costs €19,500. See more on the Baume & Mercier website.