HANDS-ON: The sporty new Baume & Mercier Clifton Club
This year’s SIHH sees Baume & Mercier release a new, sportier take on the Clifton – the Clifton Club. This collection of robust, three-handed timepieces is made for ‘gentle sportsmen’ – which, if I’m interpreting the PR video full of people on boards (surf and skate) and bikes (mountain and motorised) means it’s a sporty go-anywhere-do-anything watch that would still fit quite neatly into your daily life. Presented in a range of dial and strap options, at its core this collection is a 42mm steel case, with a diver’s bezel and legible dial design, applied indices, a bold ‘Phi’ logo at 12 and contemporary hands. As far as things go, it’s a fairly conservative package, which works with a range of colours. It looks summery in sunburst blue, and far more stealthy when realised in black and paired with the matching black ADLC case. The strap options are good too – including a traditional three-link bracelet, a sailcloth textured ‘All Road’ calfskin number with contrasting orange details, and an unusual vulcanised rubber option with a central grille of vents. With 100m of water resistance across the board, a fairly slender 10.2mm profile, screw-down crown and amply applied Luminova, the Clifton Club plays it by…
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Though Piaget has made a lot of noise in the past 12 months with the sporty steel Polo S, the undeniable heart of the collection is the ultra-slim and ultra-sexy Altiplano. Born in 1957 and named for the flat South American high plains, the Altiplano and the legendary caliber 9P that powered it, have become synonymous with thin. This year marks the collection’s 60th anniversary, and to celebrate Piaget has released two limited editions in white gold that speak to the model’s rich heritage. Today we’re looking at the larger 43mm automatic version, though there’s also a manually wound 38mm option. For a watch that slides under the cuff at a mere 5.25mm thin (and a movement that’s less than half that, at 2.35mm), this Altiplano has ample presence on the wrist. Basically, that’s because this watch is all dial. It’s a blue sunburst, which – as you can see from these pictures – shifts from cool grey to far richer tones, depending on the light. Aside from the colour, the dial is an exercise in pure design, with long white gold indices and matching hands. Somehow the elegant printed dial text and pale blue cross hair (another nice nod to…