Baume & Mercier Watches - Iléa Collection Overview

Such basic models as the 8769 are as stripped down and simplistic as a nurse’s watch. This one features a steel bracelet strap and a 30mm steel case housing a silvered dial with a curve guilloche’, and a date aperture placed discreetly at six o’clock.

More luxurious versions add to the opulence without ever overdoing it: the 8771, for instance, sees the silver dial replaced with mother-of-pearl and a curved-line décor, while the case this time is ringed with diamonds.

Bling it ain’t: the effect is elegant rather than excessive, the lack of extravagant detail on the dial – simple Arabic numerals at three, nine and twelve o’clock, indexes elsewhere – complementing the uncomplicatedly gentle sweep of the rounded case.

It is only fair to admit that there has been the occasional model that has smashed quite through Baume & Mercier’s self-imposed design puritanism: and here a watch studded with 1,000 diamonds, part of the Haute Joaillerie collections, springs almost unbidden to mind.

But it is a rare exception. Simplicity remains the essence of the Ilea, which is ultimately a very feminine watch that carries off the effect without ever seeming to try too hard.