Baume & Mercier Hampton 8819

Baume & Mercier Hampton 8819

I begin March with yet another post on a watch. I was a bit hesitant to post about this watch as it is among my favorites and is one of a pair I have with the Clairvoyant. In other words, this is personal to me. :)

The Hampton is a classic piece and some articles even call it an iconic model.

The watch has a day feature.

The signed crown with the brand's logo.

The exhibition window shows a glimpse of the movement, and each watch has a serial number. Water resistance is 50m.

This watch is powered by a Sellita SW200-1 movement that runs on 28,800 bph with a power reserve of 38hours.

The bracelet features this hidden folding deployment clasp, which makes it difficult to remove the watch from the wrist.

I bought this watch brand new and was able to get a good discount as it was purchased during the Black Friday sales that came after Thanksgiving in the US. We were vacationing in California when I got the watch and our cousins sort of "encouraged" me to get it so the Clairvoyant and I would have our matching watches. You can see the wear and tear in the form of scratches. These are due to the watch being my preference for daily use since 2011. It still is, though I can now give it a rest for longer times along with my old reliable Seiko kinetic.

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Chocolate review: Complementary chocolate at the hotel

Chocolate review: Complementary chocolate at the hotel

It's nice to start the year with some chocolates. We did enjoy a new one on New Year's Eve that I will write about soon. Meanwhile, here is a quick one on some complementary chocolates from a recent trip. My wife traveled to London recently via Singapore and on her way back, she stayed overnight in the city state in order to catch up with friends there. We had lived for almost 2 years in Singapore and love to come back once in a while to visit friends and go around our favorite haunts including its national museum. She decided to try out the new Sofitel there as it was also strategically located and allowed her easy transport as she met up with old friends. The hotel had some complementary chocolates at her room when she came back from her meetings.

Sofitel left the chocolate in this simple but elegant-looking box

I took the white chocolate while the wife had the dark

The chocolates were exquisite and if she had tasted it earlier could have been tempted to purchase a box at the lobby shop. There will be a next time so I look forward to that with me, hopefully, also getting to go to Singapore again.

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