Introducing Cool Off With Baume & Mercier's Clifton Ice Blue Editions

Following an extensive refresh in 2025 that thoroughly modernised the collection, the Baume & Mercier Clifton Baumatic line has welcomed two limited editions in 2026, both with highly finished ice blue guilloché dials. The star release is the Baumatic Perpetual Calendar 40mm, cased for the first time in stainless steel. That complicated release sits alongside a simpler Clifton Baumatic time-and-date model which also features a matching ice blue guilloché dial.

Let’s kick off with the Baumatic Perpetual. It features an entirely new case design that takes inspiration from the new time-and-date Clifton Baumatic, and measures in at 40mm with a 12.9mm thickness. There’s a nicely refined combination of brushed and polished surfaces, faceted and chamfered lugs and a crown that significantly subducts into the case. Not only does that protect it from knocks, but it also reduces the watch's width.

The dial is the real star of the show, featuring an impressive concentric guilloché pattern that gets finer towards the centre of the dial. The applied markers, numerals, and hands are rhodium-plated, with a mix of stick markers and Arabic numerals in a contemporary, curved typeface that brings a bit of 1950s flair to the dial.

The ice-blue dial finish extends over the perpetual calendar subdials in a well-balanced blue that complements the rhodium handset and markers, while also creating some depth against the dark navy moonphase aperture. The moon itself forgoes the traditional face; instead, the rhodium-plated moon disc is finished with some photorealistic shadowing.

It’s fitted to a navy blue alligator strap with curved spring bars to tightly hug the case, and turning the watch over gives a nice view of the movement through the transparent and screwed-in caseback. The movement is finished with circular graining on its bridges and Côtes de Genève across its gold-plated rotor.

Moving on to the less complicated three-handed Clifton Baumatic, it features the newly updated Clifton case introduced last year. It's a millimetre smaller than the perpetual calendar and is also (expectedly) slightly thinner at 11.22mm. The dial is equally nicely executed with that ice blue guilloché, and features applied trapezoidal hour markers and a singular applied Arabic numeral at 12 o’clock. It’s topped off with a clean, handsome crosshair on the dial and the ‘5 days’ power reserve marked on the dial at 6 o’clock.

The two watches share the same calibre, the Baumatic BM13-1975, though the Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar employs a perpetual calendar module (made by Dubois-Dépraz) for the additional complications. It’s a clever solution to developing an entirely in-house perpetual calendar movement and keeps the price much more attainable for this traditionally expensive complication. The QP also manages to maintain the same 120-hour power reserve as its time-and-date-only sibling.

Both of these new additions to the Clifton Baumatic collection are limited editions, with the Clifton Baumatic priced at A$5,400 and the Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar at A$32,500.

If you haven’t checked in with the Clifton collection in a few years, it’s worth reacquainting yourself. As mentioned, 2025 saw its case redesigned as well as it receive a more refined dial and handset, plus the addition of the three-link bracelet for the Clifton Baumatic. There are many more subtle tweaks across the watch that amount to huge refinement - much more evolution than revolution. It was the shot in the arm the Clifton Baumatic collection needed, slightly shrunk to fit contemporary tastes and modernised to deliver what consumers now expect.

The Baumatic BM13-1975 base calibre that both of these watches use is actually quite the powerhouse of a movement. Whilst it lacks the Twispir balance spring of its earlier incarnations, it does still have a silicon escape wheel and lever, which has a clever design to optimise the transfer of energy via the lever from the escape wheel to the balance - this is called a Powerscape escapement in B&M speak. The extensive use of silicon through the escape wheel, lever and balance spring gives the movement a high resistance to magnetism, and Baume & Mercier were an early adopter of silicon technology in watchmaking long before it became more commonly integrated across price ranges. Both watches also have a very respectable 120-hour (5-day) power reserve, which will especially come in handy on the Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar.

Whilst the BM13-1975 offers a ton of benefits, I was a little disappointed that one trick up Baume & Mercier’s sleeve was left out of these new limited editions. The BM13-1975 comes in both COSC and non-COSC certified variants, and the BM13-1975 in these new models is not COSC certified. Given the attention to detail, improved finishing, limited nature and price of these new models, I would have expected the COSC-certified BM13-1975 to have made its way into the Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar at least.

At A$5,400, the Clifton Baumatic represents a strong alternative to similar watches like the Longines Master, both being 39mm time and date watches with frosty blue dial options, but the Clifton Baumatic brings guilloché finishing, something rarely seen at this price point from the big players. It has the attention to detail that enthusiasts look for, like a dial-colour-matched date wheel and quick-release bars built into the bracelet.

Brand: Baume & Mercier
Model: Clifton Baumatic, Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar
Reference Number: M0A10870, M0A10872
Diameter: 39mm, 40mm
Thickness: 11.22mm, 12.9mm
Case Material: Stainless steel
Dial: Ice blue guilloché
Indexes: Applied and rhodium-plated
Lume: No
Water Resistance: 50 meters (5 bar)
Strap/Bracelet: 3-row polished and satin-finished stainless-steel bracelet, blue alligator strap with matching stitching

Calibre: Baumatic BM13-1975-1975 A, Baumatic with Dubois-Dépraz perpetual calendar module BM13-1975-1975 AC2
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date (Clifton Baumatic); hours, minutes, seconds, perpetual calendar with moonphase (Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar)
Power Reserve: 120 hours (5 days)
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 4 Hz
Chronometer Certified: No

Price: A$5,400 (Clifton Baumatic); A$32,500 (Clifton Baumatic Perpetual Calendar)
Availability: Now
Limited Edition: Yes

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