RIP Baume & Mercier (sort of). Richemont goes further up by slimming down.

After years of predicting it, Richemont has off loaded Baume & Mercier. Lets talk about the sale, whose buying it, what it might mean and does this signal anything for other brands.

For your awareness some things about me and the channel.

I'm an engineer who's into human behavior, loves the ideas behind art and sees watches as a mix of science, craft, art, business, history, technology, philosophy, and psychology. As a result, my videos cover all that ground. (Oh, and I overthink everything).

In my opinion a $15 Casio or a $50 G-Shock are probably the only real tool watches and pretty much everything else is jewelry. So as we are talking about jewelry I think style is substance and I tend to believe history, brand, style, design, execution, and aesthetics are more important than specs. A dull design with a good movement is a dull watch, and an exciting design with an average movement is an exciting watch.

To be clear, I hate the expression "it's just a watch". If you got this far, watches matter to you and represent a bridge between us - dismissing them as unimportant seems wrong and disrespectful. That doesn't mean we can't and don't have fun, it just means we should not be totally mindless of others.

I'm a watch collector and curator - I like my collections to have a theme. My collection has several themes:

1. Alpina watches (mainly vintage but some modern)
2. Travel watches (GMT. UTC, world timers, home times, dual times)
3. Breitlings (modern and 60s-70's era)
4. Stuff I just really like - pricey, and
5. Stuff I really like - affordable.

You'll notice I focus on brands and branding - thats deliberate. Just as I cant/wont separate an artist from their art I cant/wont separate a brand from their product.

I strive to be right but I will make mistakes. I strive to be authentic - that means sometimes I will be biased. I'll generally try and flag when I know something reflects my personal tastes or ideals but again I wont get it right every time.

I don't do wrist checks so if you want to see what I'm wearing, my collection, and other random bits of my life check out my Instagram:
@amateur.hour.watches
  / amateur.hour.watches  

I like the write a little too, so check out my substack:
https://amateurhourwatches.substack.com/

You can email me at pete.mcconvill.watches@gmail.com

other stuff:

camera gear is mostly sony
mike is a rode
sound recorded using audacity
video editted using powerdirector
my stock images and videos tend to come from either snappa (https://snappa.com/app) or pexels (https://www.pexels.com/)
I generate my music using edimaker
I use google ai pro/gemini to assist editting scripts and essays