Customer Reviews

Baume & Mercier Men's 8779 Riviera Divers Automatic Watch

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I was eyeballing this watch for about three years before finally buying it. Three years back it was still selling for close to MSRP, and I got a Raymond Weil Parsifal instead. Now that it's here, it has of course been subjected to agonizing scrutiny.

And how better to inflict agonizing scrutiny on a watch than to compare it to my Omega Seamaster Coaxial chronometer? So here we go.

Starting with the box... it is the usual (for watches in this range) cardboard box, surrounding another box of well, honestly, I'm not quite sure what material, with the watch inside on a cushion. And of course the ridiculously large owner's manual. The Omega box experience is a bit more impressive, but only marginally so.

Let's go to the case. The Riviera is famous for its dodecagonal case, which some have said is a copy of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak eight-sided case. The Royal Oak came out a year earlier (1972 vs. 1973), and I don't know enough about watch production cycles to know whether that suggests the Riviera is a copy or if there's parallel evolution at work. In any case (so to speak), I like the twelve-sided case on the Riviera better, since it matches the hour markers.

Because the Riviera is a diver's watch (200m), it also has a dodecagonal rotating bezel. The bezel rotates in half-minute stops. One issue with a dodecagonal bezel on a dodecagonal case is that when rotated, the corners of the bezel could stick out past the edges of the case. B&M set the bezel in just enough (that is, the diameter of the bezel is less than the diameter of the case) that when the bezel is rotated 15 degrees (maximum offset), the corner of the bezel just reaches the edge of the case. A very well-executed design. Clearly they thought this through.

The blue color on the bezel is annodized or painted (it has the same metallic texture as the paint on a car). The silver numbers appear to be of the same material but in silver, neither raised nor inset from the surface of the bezel. Because it is not the same material as the blued steel hands, it is not exactly the same color and doesn't reflect light exactly the same way - but it's pretty close. Markings on the bezel are basically copied from the Rolex Sub. After three months of periodic use, there are no visible scratches, chips or other color loss on the bezel.

The dial is flawlessly executed under loupe examination. Much like the Omega, printing is perfect, with slightly raised letters. I like the B&M's execution of the letters a bit better, but that's just personal preference. Both watches use a very subtle sunray pattern on the background of the dial (the Omega in blue, the B&M in silver).

The hands on the B&M are blued steel, vs. regular steel on the Omega. Execution of the hands is slightly better on the B&M, with all the edges perfectly crisp. The base of the second hand on the Omega is very slightly rough under loupe examination. So here I give an edge to the B&M. The shape of the B&M's hands is also unique. The second hand is the Rolex Sub baton hand with the lumed dot. The minute hand is a fairly conventional lumed sword hand. The hour hand is a hollow sword hand with a lumed semicircle on either side near the tip, forming the B&M trademark letter Phi. My best friend (a much greater horology buff than I) made an extremely rude comment about the shape of the hour hand, suggesting a Freudian interpretation. Let's just set that aside.

And let's talk about the lume. The lume on the Omega is very serviceable. The lume on the B&M is amazing, by far the best of any watch I own. The indices are large, lumed dots, except for the twelve, which is a large, lumed roman numeral. The twelve o'clock dot index on the bezel is also lumed. Because of the distinctive shape of the hands, it is immediately obvious which hand is which in the dark, and the lume on the roman twelve and bezel dot make the orientation of the watch obvious. This is the only watch I own where it is totally, immediately obvious what time it is in the dark. In addition, the lume is very strong.

The crystal appears to be antireflective. While that is not stated anywhere in the specs, it hardly reflects at all.

I wear my Omega on a strap, but it came with a bracelet. So we can compare bracelets. The B&M has polished outer links with brushed inner links. The Omega is entirely brushed. The deployant clasp is single on the Omega, double on the B&M. Although the Omega gets points for a nifty Omega logo at the closure (no logo on the B&M), the B&M feels more robust. In addition, the B&M uses screw-in links (the Omega uses push pins). It took me only a couple of minutes to resize the B&M to my little girlie wrist. It wears extremely comfortably, as much so as any watch I own despite its relatively large size.

The movement, obviously, is where the Omega distinguishes itself. The Seamaster uses the innovative Coaxial movement and is chronometer rated. The B&M uses a conventional 2824 (I don't know what grade) and is not chronometer rated. We will see how well it keeps time in practice. Interestingly, I can see the difference between the B&M's 8 beats per second and the Omega's 7 beats per second. The B&M gains about 13 seconds per day, which is consistent across all positions. The consistency should mean that it could be reliably regulated to a very high degree of accuracy, which I will not have done until I take it in for periodic service in five years or so.

Speaking of movements, obviously I got to mess about a bit with the crown in the process of setting the watch. The crown is hexagonal, with another slightly raised hexagon offset 30 degrees and the Phi logo imposed on it. It matches the rest of the watch nicely. The action on the crown is unique in my experience - smooth yet firm, and inspiring much more confidence than the Omega's crown action. It feels like the mechanicals of a German car. Similar to the bezel, B&M gave some thought to the angles of the crown - it's been threaded in such a way that when fully screwed in, one of the sides of the hexagon is parallel to the plane of the bezel.

So that's it. Amazingly, the B&M lived up to my inflated expectations, and is in my opinion better executed than the Omega in most ways, with the obvious exception of the movement.

Considering all the great watches out there, is this B&M with its vanilla 2824 movement worth the price when there are perfectly serviceable watches out there with the same technical characteristics for half as much? In my personal opinion, I think it actually is.

Purchased from Japan is
You are quick and courteous dealings had no trouble the first Shop
I also like the product very happy