You may expect on something dressier like this to see brightly colored polished hands – and I can see the appeal. After having the blued hands in sight, though, I think they work very well. For starters, it makes a crisp contrast to the white of the dialup, which makes for easy readability. The coloration is also somewhat shifty. By this, I mean it can appear a bright blue in 1 light, then change into an almost-black colour (and it seems darker in the majority of these photographs), which again speaks to a dressier piece.On the wrist, the 68g Baume & Mercier Hampton was a treat. Take particular note of that burden, as that’s just about a featherweight when it has to do with automatics (or, perhaps, I am just too used to steel dive watches). While the instance back is not curved at all, I found the fit in my wrist to be good. The alligator strap included some extra texture to the watch, along with the signed deployant clasp worked nicely, and I did not have any difficulties with it digging into my wrist once I had things sized, which I love. That is something I’ve noticed is a bigger problem when you’ve got a deployant on a strap – it may end up adding unnecessary bulk, which then ends up digging into your skin. Here, I did not have that issue, thankfully.Coming in at an asking price of $2,650, the Baume & Mercier Hampton is a strong small luxury dress watch. I think the one we reviewed together with the blue handset has become the most flexible, since you might easily swap into a brown strap on this and have a more casual look, which makes it more flexibility. Of course, you could also opt for a model that comes on the brown strap (in either an automatic or a quartz – the quartz model dropping the price $1100). While dress watch purists may not agree with me, I truly do think the Baume & Mercier Hampton is a great art deco inspired dress watch prepared to take on the office or a night out with a tux.
Clifton Club 10340
Case : polished/satin-finished steel with ADLC coating, water-resistant to 100m, glareproofed sapphire crystal, solid back
Size : 42mm
Movement : mechanical selfwinding (38h power reserve)
Functions : hours, minutes, seconds, date at 3 o’clock
Dial : black, opaline finish, rhodiumplated hands filled with Super-LumiNova®
Bracelet : triple row design in polished/ satin-finished stainless steel, triple folding clasp