Personality, elegance and precision is what has classified Baume et Mercier watches since its beginning in 1830. After more than 170 years of creative and distinguishable watch making, the company continues to modernize its watches and appeal to the public. Every year there are a plethora of stylish watches available for men and women with several different models to choose from.
It all started when Louis Victor and Pierre-Joseph-Celestin Baume found the "Freres Baume" trading entity in the Les Bois Village in 1830, which lies within the Swiss Jura Mountains. From there a dynasty took off among this family that had already been making watches for several years.
In 1834, members of the Baume family founded the Societe Baume Feres in Le Bois. At first the family targeted enameled pocket watches, but it soon branched off into a large company with great diversity. In 1844, Joseph Celestin Baume traveled to England to set up business relations. It was this trip that helped diversify the company and spread their watches across Europe. Soon after, watches signed "Waterloo," "Diviko" and "Sirdar" opened markets in Australia and New Zealand.
In the early 1880's the second generation of the family headed the company into more modernized watches. Louis-Victor's son, Alcide Eugene headed the Swiss firm while Alcide's brother, Arthur Joseph was managing the London branch. Their elegance and precision was rewarded in 1893 as their watches won the timing competitions at the Kew- Teddington Observatory. The watches scored 91.3 out of 100 possible.
The turn of the century saw new and exciting things for the company beginning in 1912. It was in 1912 that William Baume met the watchmaker and jeweler Paul Mercier at the Geneva watch and jewelry shop in Haas. This meeting between the two would eventually lead to a signing for the establishment of Baume and Mercier in Geneva on November 26, 1918.
The agreement amongst the two proved to be an extremely smart and successful one in years to come. Just three years later in 1921 the company was rewarded again, this time by the coveted Poincon de Geneve, which was the official recognition of flawless quality products.
After World War II the company shifted its focus to conventional men's watches, chronographs and ladies' jewelry watches. In 1965 the Piaget family took control over Baume et Mercier outbidding international competition and that same year the new owners switched to electronic tuning fork movements.
Currently, Baume et Mercier just opened a store in Switzerland in 2004 and has made a name for itself as a trendsetter. Continuous production and modernization in watches such as the Riviera, which was released in 1980, has kept the company alive and strong over 170 years later.
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There are several ways a company can go about marketing their product to the public. Whether it's online, in a magazine or on television, the marketing campaign a company uses and how they display the product is crucial to the business. For Baume et Mercier, the company picked up a gold mine with the beautifully talented actress Meg Ryan becoming the new face of the company.
Meg Ryan has enjoyed an extremely successful career acting with movies such as Kate & Leopold, You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle just to name a few. Despite her hectic schedule, including three new movies that are in the pre-production stages, she has taken the time to show her face and do some charity work for Baume et Mercier.
Ryan has appeared in several printed ads for the company now and has donated her time to help others as well. Another recognizable face that accompanies Meg Ryan with charity work for Baume et Mercier and print ads is Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland has been in a plethora of movies including L.A. Confidential, Phone Booth and A Few Good Men.
In 2005, Ryan and Sutherland represented themselves as well as Baume et Mercier at several non-profit organizations. The organizations they supported were the Doctor's Without Borders Glaza, Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, Hollywood Entertainment Museum, Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Youth I.N.C.
Having two highly recognizable and extremely classy figures representing their company, Baume et Mercier is living large and having continuous success. They have been able to use Meg Ryan and Kiefer Sutherland in enticing ways to keep their watch line hip and classy at the same time.
Ryan and Sutherland joined the likes of Charlize Theron and Johnny Depp who also represent and endorse top class timepieces. In 2005, Theron became the face of the worldwide timepiece line Raymond Weil. Picking up celebrities to be the face of the company is a great way for companies to appeal to the public since celebrities and actors are recognizable.
As soon as the public sees the face of one of their favorite stars in connection with a brand or model, that company becomes highly touted. In the case of Baume et Mercier, they not only picked up two talented and recognizable celebrities to represent their watches, but they also picked up two well-liked and classy figures as well.
Baume et Mercier has been around for over 170 years and it can be difficult to keep things fresh and enticing for the public after that long. However, with new watch models and collections coming out every few years in conjunction with two recognizable faces representing the company, Baume et Mercier appears to be on the path of selling for years to come.
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