Les Bois
William Baume, who took over the management of the Baume company in Les Bois in 1910, represented the third generation after his grandfather and father. He had previously completed his watchmaking apprenticeship with Mathey-Tissot at Les Ponts-de-Martel, about 30 kilometers from Les Bois between Le Locle and Neuchâtel. Mathey-Tissot, established in 1886, was specialised in complicated watches, especially minute-repeaters and precision chronographs. It was thus with this specialist background that William Baume joined the family firm in 1909, working for a year with his father until he was entrusted with the management of the company in 1910. William Baume had then just turned 25. Meanwhile the London branch of Frères Baume, run by William’s uncle, Arthur Baume, was playing a leading role in the affairs of the business. After a family row, William Baume left Les Bois in 1918, shortly after the end of World War I. He settled in Geneva with the intention of starting a watch company.