Baume & Mercier Chronograph

Hello Omega Forums!

I am going through my collection, and am going to be thinning it out, by separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

Now that I am a member of this great resource, I thought this might be a good opportunity to go through some of my watches and gather people's opinions on authenticity and the like.

So this brings me to a beautiful watch of mine. The fourth watch I had ever bought going back 4 years now.

It's in a beautiful 18k case with unusual unpolished rose gold lugs. But I always thought that the dial might be a refinished example, simply because it is in remarkable shape.



I did quite a bit of research and found a good few examples with the same lugs, but none with this dial. Similar dials, but not this one, so it's hard to compare. Some examples of what I found are below:



The bottom example confirms the lugs to be authentic, whilst the top two are very close dial matches to mine. Albeit with different hands. Another curve ball of course is that mine appears to be double signed with Chronograph Suisse under Baume & Mercier, which I have only been able to find two examples:



The second one whilst positions of the texts are different, has the same or similar Alpha hands as mine, so could point these to being original also. Here's another example with Alpha hands.
Whilst none of these are the same as mine, it could point to the parts at least being authentic to the brand, but with very little material (that I seem to be able to find) it's really hard to say, so any other opinions would of course be useful.

Also, does anyone have any idea as to the age of such a watch - I have no idea. It's a Landeron movement as far as I am aware, but I cannot find a database anywhere for serials for either this or B&M. It does have number on the caseback but I do not know what this relates to, on the inside it is engraved Baume and Mercier only, whilst on the outside it is stamped 18K gold, and beneath this it reads: 73 and beneath that, 627706.

Look forward to hearing any ideas!

Ollie 😀

Yeah that's another reason why I figured it could be a redial - but after seeing so many others that were not aligned I wasn't sure haha!

I'll get a photo of the movement for you 😀

Here we go - just took a photo, I think a spring or something must be missing as when I activate the chronograph, it works but sometimes i have to turn it on and off, and on and off again before the second function of the button at 4 o'clock resets the second hand to 12 O'clock. I know that's another matter, but any ideas what the problem could be there?

Anywhere here's the pic as promised 😀

At least that's some good news!

What do you mean by unprotected? Was there something added to the movement that this one doesn't appear to have?

What do you think regarding the hands etc. Perhaps if it's just the dial that has been restored, maybe I could try and find one on ebay to replace with this one. I do LOVE the lugs 😀

I'll try finding myself a 1940s/50s box too, I'll have to do a bit of googling to see if I can find what was common for this period.

As for the issue resetting the chronograph hand to 12, do you think something is missing? As a complete beginner I'm afraid the bridge is the only term I know for parts in a movement, but it appears that after activating the chronograph timing function with the pusher at 2 O'clock, I press the one at 4 O'clock and the hand stops, but sometimes on a second press it will not reset.

I notice that the metal piece that rocks when I press the pusher at four is pressed, moves into the second of two notches in a further metal piece (in the pic above this is the darker grey piece below the bridge). It does appear that when it fully inserts into this second notch it will reset correctly, but sometimes it doesn't go fully in (as per the photo), and so I have to press the two buttons again until it works. Do you know why this could be?

Thank you for all your help!

Ollie 😀

PS. After a bit more searching I can confirm that I believe the number on the back of the case, 627706 relates to the case, as I have found another with this same reference and case.

Okay so this is mad - it appears I have found my watch for sale many moons ago! It came from Japan at some point and can be found here:

https://chronograph-seno.com/?pid=116462874

Apparently it was up for £2,000!! I certainly did not pay that and indeed states that the dial is professionally restored.

Looking at their picture of the movement against my own there appears to be a thin piece of wire that I imagine acts as a spring on that part of the mechanism that I refer to above - I'm guessing this is what is the problem so I need to find one of these pieces to reinstate it.

After a little more digging I found this:





I believe the part I am referring to is 8340 or the fly-back lever spring which I guess makes sense as I am trying to reset the chronograph. Flyback / reset perhaps these words are the same?

If this is the case, would it be this part that I need to buy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pieza-re...=2239082199136194c4b704264ce19edf26e76067e537

Thank you for your help 😀

Wow that case reference really has helped me out - I've found another VERY similar with same case reference:

https://www.facegold24.co.uk/jewellery-and-watches/cod-b82-baume--mercier_91.html?hl=en

The hands are the same, the case is the same, the dial is similar although I can't seem to get a close up. All evidence so far is leading to an original item, just with a refinished dial! It also dates that one to the 50s which would work on your dating. 😀

Ollie

The hands are silver in tone, whilst the numerals are a rose gold. Perhaps they were silver before it was repainted?

Okay - so right type, wrong colour haha!

With regards to the spring I refer to above, would you say that item on ebay is the correct one that I am missing? 😀