If you’ve ever wondered how to pronounce the brand name BA111OD with all those ones in it, then it’s useful to know that it’s based on the family name of brand’s founder Baillod. Tracing the family’s history back through time reveals they’ve been connected to the watchmaking scene for roughly 250 years, appearing in regional watchmaking records in 1775. It’s this history that modern BA111OD wants to pay tribute to with the Chapter 8 Baillod Family Legacy Special Editions.
The Chapter 8 was first introduced last year as a new classical dress watch and moonphase option alongside their modern sports watches. Meanwhile, BA111OD also acquired a vintage pocket watch from the 19th century in 2025 signed “Charles Baillod, Locle” to be part of their growing heritage collection. With a new classical collection hitting shelves and a classical pocket watch in their collection, there could only be one logical conclusion: combine the two into a special edition.
Structurally, the case design is identical to the original Chapter 8 models. That means a 41mm diameter and 12.75mm thickness with the crown positioned at 4 o’clock. There are two versions: one with a standard steel construction and the other with a rose gold PVD coating for a more luxurious edge to match the colour of the original pocket watch. They’re presented on black leather straps with a crocodile embossed texture, adding to the dress watch charm.
Where the Baillod Family Legacy Special Editions differ from the standard Chapter 8 models are the dials. If anything, the new display is a hybrid between the previous time and date edition and the moonphase variant. It takes the quasi-sector style display of the former and the off-centre small seconds subdial of the latter and pairs them together with a central guilloché style disk and peripheral Roman numerals.
Side by side with the pocket watch you can immediately see the similarities. The hands in particular are practically identical with their traditional Breguet shape and distinctive circular tips. Although there is a point of difference between the steel and gold models here as the steel edition has blue hands while the gold’s hands are black.
Powering both versions is the Soprod automatic calibre C110, which is effectively the non-moonphase version of the movement. It has a 42-hour power reserve and is visible through the Chapter 8 Baillod Family Legacy Special Edition’s exhibition caseback. It looks great with its combination of perlage and straight-line Côtes de Genève finishing.
Both versions of the special edition are priced at £1,045 excl. taxes. That’s roughly the same as the moonphase version, which makes sense because you’re essentially trading the additional complications for more refined finishing via the guilloché style display. It’s also just nice to see a modern classical dress watch that doesn’t cost in the region of £5,000 – £10,000+.
Price and Specs:
More details at BA111OD.
