Watches & Wonders 2024 isn’t far away now, but we’re already seeing some exciting new releases including the Baume & Mercier Riviera Tideograph (which is translated from the French word, Maréographe), capable of tracking the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides. Created to be the perfect everyday companion for a keen sailor, surfer, or anyone who loves to spend their time in salt water, there’s a lot to love about this sleekly designed sports watch.
Regular readers of Boss Hunting will recall that 2023 was a massive year for Baume & Mercier, with the 50th anniversary of the Riviera collection seeing the launch of several exciting new watches. These included the super-robust Riviera Azur 300m, the timezone tracking Riviera GMT, and a new 39mm Riviera, but arguably the best of them all was the Baume & Mercier Riviera Perpetual Calendar.
While the straightforward complexity of the Riviera Perpetual Calendar continues to live rent-free in my mind, the all-new Baume & Mercier Riviera Tideograph brings a fresh complication to a familiar package. With a slightly larger profile than the 2023 Riviera releases, the articulately brushed steel case of the Tideograph measures 43mm in diameter and 12.3mm in thickness.
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An easy way to spot the Riviera Tideograph is the four black DLC-coated screws that hold the bezel in place, which nicely frames the sunray brushed blue dial. With similarly skeletonised hour and minute hands to what we saw in 2023 (featuring a little less luminous material, however), the main attraction of the dial is the high and low tide-tracking complication at 6 o’clock.
Powering this complication is a twist on the popular Baumatic movement (the BM14-1975AC3, to be exact), which has been adapted to display a disc that rotates with each of the 12-hour and 25-minute tide cycles. You’re able to manually set and adjust the cycle depending on where you are in the world with the pusher at 4 o’clock, while you can be confident in the watch ticking away with around 120 hours of power reserve when fully wound.
It’s an interesting complication for Baume & Mercier to release, but one that makes perfect sense in the Riviera collection, which after all is named after the Côte d’Azur region known around the world for luxuriating leisure. Arriving on a blue rubber strap that’s as comfortable as it is durable, the Baume & Mercier Riviera Tideograph also enjoys 100m of water resistance.
The Baume & Mercier Riviera Tideograph comes as a limited edition of just 500 pieces worldwide and an Australian RRP of $8,500.
