I recently purchased a genuine Baume & Mercier watch here on the forum and wanted to share a review on the watch as i have a little extra time on my hands these days. I saw the watch in the gen sales section, and although no box and papers, trusted the seller it would be a genuine watch.
Aftee a few days I received the watch in good order and it was love at first sight. Obviously its a used watch, so it came with some dings and scratches, but I typically never mind it when you can see the watch is showing a little bit of age, albeit this model is on the market since this millinium and therefore still quite recent (in fact, you can still buy it new too). Prices for the watch are ranging from 1995 usd all the way up to 3995 usd when bought new in the grey channel (or Euro equivalent.) You can find them used ranging from a little below 1,000 Euro / usd, without box and papers, and go all the way up to 1500 or even more for a used watch which comes with box and papers.
The watch is quite good size for a Baume & Mercier as their models are typically not larger than 40mm without crown. Also the Chronograph function is quite nice as that is also not standard on a Baume & Mercier.
The MOA10082 is similar to the MOA1000x with the difference that the 10082 comes with an open case back, showing the very tasty Baume & Mercier adaptation of the Swiss ETA 7753 movement. This is a quite well known movement, also often used in Breitling watches (I believe its then referenced as the b13 movement, but not 100% sure) and other premium Swiss brands for their chronographs.
The movement itself works quite straightforward and is easy to operate. A note: as this is an ETA 7753 movement, one is not supposed to quick set the date when the hour is between 9pm and 3am. This has to do with the inner works of this movement and since I am not an expert, i just keep this in mind. With the ETA 7753 the date display sits between 4 and 5, which makes the dial a bit more playful to see.
The dial of the 10082 comes in a beautiful white finish with black numerals and silver hands for hour, minute seconds and chronograph. The hands have a white inner, which is making the hands quite elegant and sleek to see. If you have my eye sights, perhaps a bit too sleek, as its hard to tell the time with the white background when not having my reading glasses on. For anyone with good eye sight this should not be a problem at all. The Telemeter annotation is in red font in the outer section of the dial and looks quite nice. Chrono functions work perfectly and reset as you might expect from a genuine watch in this price range.
Power reserve is excellent. I had it just in my watch box instead of watch winder for 3 days and it still kept time well. The watch is COSC certified, but daily rate goes over the allowed standard of + or - 5 seconds a day, with about 1-2 seconds, but for me not enough to get really worried about as a simple service will get this back within specs. The watch is at least a decade old, so not a huge issue as its a slight variation which is allowed when just looking at a single day average instead of measuring over a longer period as I did.
When I bought the watch it came with the original alligator brown leather strap, which looked like very high end quality. However, since it was intensly used I did replace it immediately for a standard calf skin leather strap which was easy to fit and quite well priced.
I am normally not someone buying brands like Baume & Mercier as I typically do not “dig” their models, but this one is an exception as it is quite large, has a chrono function and looks a bit more “bad ass” and therefore fits the bill a bit better for me. Normally I am into brands like Breitling, Omega, IWC, etc and then most often their larger models and the Baume & Mercier perfectly fits my line up of watches….
If only my eyesight would have been slightly better…..;-)
And here are the pictures:
Aftee a few days I received the watch in good order and it was love at first sight. Obviously its a used watch, so it came with some dings and scratches, but I typically never mind it when you can see the watch is showing a little bit of age, albeit this model is on the market since this millinium and therefore still quite recent (in fact, you can still buy it new too). Prices for the watch are ranging from 1995 usd all the way up to 3995 usd when bought new in the grey channel (or Euro equivalent.) You can find them used ranging from a little below 1,000 Euro / usd, without box and papers, and go all the way up to 1500 or even more for a used watch which comes with box and papers.
The watch is quite good size for a Baume & Mercier as their models are typically not larger than 40mm without crown. Also the Chronograph function is quite nice as that is also not standard on a Baume & Mercier.
The MOA10082 is similar to the MOA1000x with the difference that the 10082 comes with an open case back, showing the very tasty Baume & Mercier adaptation of the Swiss ETA 7753 movement. This is a quite well known movement, also often used in Breitling watches (I believe its then referenced as the b13 movement, but not 100% sure) and other premium Swiss brands for their chronographs.
The movement itself works quite straightforward and is easy to operate. A note: as this is an ETA 7753 movement, one is not supposed to quick set the date when the hour is between 9pm and 3am. This has to do with the inner works of this movement and since I am not an expert, i just keep this in mind. With the ETA 7753 the date display sits between 4 and 5, which makes the dial a bit more playful to see.
The dial of the 10082 comes in a beautiful white finish with black numerals and silver hands for hour, minute seconds and chronograph. The hands have a white inner, which is making the hands quite elegant and sleek to see. If you have my eye sights, perhaps a bit too sleek, as its hard to tell the time with the white background when not having my reading glasses on. For anyone with good eye sight this should not be a problem at all. The Telemeter annotation is in red font in the outer section of the dial and looks quite nice. Chrono functions work perfectly and reset as you might expect from a genuine watch in this price range.
Power reserve is excellent. I had it just in my watch box instead of watch winder for 3 days and it still kept time well. The watch is COSC certified, but daily rate goes over the allowed standard of + or - 5 seconds a day, with about 1-2 seconds, but for me not enough to get really worried about as a simple service will get this back within specs. The watch is at least a decade old, so not a huge issue as its a slight variation which is allowed when just looking at a single day average instead of measuring over a longer period as I did.
When I bought the watch it came with the original alligator brown leather strap, which looked like very high end quality. However, since it was intensly used I did replace it immediately for a standard calf skin leather strap which was easy to fit and quite well priced.
I am normally not someone buying brands like Baume & Mercier as I typically do not “dig” their models, but this one is an exception as it is quite large, has a chrono function and looks a bit more “bad ass” and therefore fits the bill a bit better for me. Normally I am into brands like Breitling, Omega, IWC, etc and then most often their larger models and the Baume & Mercier perfectly fits my line up of watches….
If only my eyesight would have been slightly better…..;-)
And here are the pictures:
