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The rectangular case has had a long and complicated history in Swiss watchmaking, and most modern interpretations get one of two things wrong: they oversize the proportions trying to keep up with round sports watches, or they hollow the dial out into something polite and forgettable. The Baume Mercier Hampton Automatic Large MV045120, in our opinion, gets both right. It commits to the elongated tank silhouette with conviction, fills the dial with a genuinely characterful Art Deco typeface instead of generic batons, and runs an in-house finished Swiss automatic underneath rather than treating the rectangular case as a quartz-only design exercise. It is a wonderfully complete piece of watchmaking that has aged into one of the more quietly compelling rectangular dress propositions on the secondary market.
Baume & Mercier traces back to 1830, which puts the house among the oldest continuously operating Swiss manufacturers, and the Phi emblem you see on the crown, on the clasp, beside the dial signature and engraved into the caseback was formalized in 1964 as a guiding philosophy already a century deep at that point: that horology, like any decorative art, is fundamentally a question of proportion. The Hampton itself launched in the mid-1990s drawing directly from the brand’s 1960s rectangular archive and the broader 1920s Art Deco vocabulary, and it has remained in continuous production for more than three decades since. That kind of longevity for a rectangular dress watch in a market that obsesses over round divers is a quiet vote of confidence from a Hampton collector base that has stayed loyal across an entire generation of design churn.
The movement is the Baume & Mercier BM8395 automatic, the brand’s ETA 2000-based caliber that powered most of the Hampton Automatic Large run. The 2000 family is a personal favorite of ours for dress watches in this size class because it was specifically engineered as a slim, smaller-diameter automatic optimized to fit non-round cases without forcing the case proportions to compromise. You get a full Swiss automatic mechanism with date, a smooth signed rotor, and enough mass to keep the watch wound on a single day’s wrist time, all packaged in a movement small enough that the case never has to bulge to accommodate it. The previous owner kept it well, and the caliber is running cleanly in our opinion.
The case is brushed and polished stainless steel measuring 24.5mm across by 41mm lug to lug, with the gently rounded rectangular profile and softly chamfered short ends that define the Hampton silhouette. There is honest surface hairlining on the polished flanks and across the caseback, the kind of wear you only get on a watch that was genuinely worn rather than safe-queened, and the case structure remains crisp with sharp edges preserved everywhere it matters. The signed crown at three o’clock carries a small Phi emblem and operates with no slop. The solid caseback is engraved BAUME & MERCIER GENEVE with the Phi emblem at center, then AUTOMATIC, STAINLESS STEEL, ACIER INOX, serial number 2841712, and the reference MV045120.
The dial is where the Hampton design language really earns its keep. A flat champagne field, warm without tipping into yellow, with all twelve hour positions rendered in a tall theatrical Arabic numeral set printed directly onto the dial, the six omitted to make room for a neatly framed date aperture. The numerals are unmistakably Art Deco in spirit, with a slight serif treatment and a poster-like quality that gives the dial real personality without leaning on applied indices. Connecting them is a black octagonal railroad-style chapter ring that echoes the rectangular case shape and creates a watch-within-a-watch architecture we genuinely admire. The Phi logo with BAUME & MERCIER GENEVE printed below sits in the upper field beneath twelve, AUTOMATIC is printed across the lower center, and SWISS MADE anchors the dial base. Dark-finished hour and minute hands sweep across the composition with a small pierced circle near each tip, a fine sweep seconds hand completes the layout, and the dial overall remains clean, crisp, and entirely free of marking or discoloration.
The original three-row polished stainless steel bracelet is in handsome shape, with five-link rows per section creating the recognizable Hampton bracelet architecture that integrates seamlessly into the rectangular case ends. The signed deployant clasp carries the Phi emblem centered on its cover and operates cleanly. Original signed clasps and bracelets on Hamptons at this price point are increasingly difficult to find intact, and this one wears comfortably out to the 8.5 inch wrist range. The watch arrives in its original Baume & Mercier presentation box with the Phi emblem stamped in gold on the lid, a nice complete-set touch for the collector who wants the full original package.
Serviced in-house at OTTUHR and backed by our 2-year mechanical warranty. For the collector who values genuine Swiss manufacture pedigree, a beautifully resolved Art Deco dial, and an integrated bracelet over yet another round stainless sports watch, this Baume Mercier Hampton Automatic Large MV045120 is, to us, one of the more deliberately characterful dress watches you can buy in the rectangular automatic category right now.
