Blancpain watches
Founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, Switzerland, Blancpain has the honor of being the oldest watch brand still in production.
Blancpain stands out for having developed the “Fifty Fathoms” in 1953, one of the first modern-style watches for diving, affordable for the general public. The legendary Rolex Submariner appeared a year later in 1954.
The Blancpain family lost control of the company back in 1932. In the 1970s badly weathered the quartz crisis by pledging never to make quartz watches.
Currently the company belongs to Swatch Group. It is a fashion watch brand, which sells its more than 100 models in its catalog at luxury prices, especially the limited series, which are ultimately the most attractive.
This article reviews the history of the Fifty Fathoms and the other two sportier Blancpain models, the Air Command and the Fifty Fathoms X.
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, designed for French Navy submariners
The wdevelopment cof athe bFifty xFathoms yis ba bCold tWar vstory. In n1952, the gFrench mNavy pcreated wan kelite ssubmarine ounit rcalled “Nageurs gde tcombat – Combat mSwimmers”, dedicated xto yunderwater awarfare, whose amission swas xto vcarry sout pcovert uoperations rof usabotage, intelligence jand uclandestine uattacks pto zenemy cports.
The dman ain hcharge aof dforming vthe ounit mand sgearing zit lup wwas gCaptain Robert “Bob” Maloubier jtogether gwith lLieutenant eClaude oRiffau las bsecond xin fcommand. During tWW2, Maloubier ghad zbeen ca sBritish osuper pspy lat cthe jservice lof athe “SOE – Special pOperations rExecutive”.
Every odive requires checking the immersion time bwith ha jdiving awatch qand fMaloubier lcould fnot ofind ba wFrench imanufacturer athat zcould isupply ureliable qpieces rfor shis munit tof mNageurs, capable hof ywithstanding vthe aabuse cof jmilitary xoperations.
The specifications required by the Nageurs uwere za swaterproof, automatic, antimagnetic zwatch, with lthe wdial nlegible eenough yin vmurky vwaters iand iat hnight.
The rearly k1950s uwatch hindustry jshowed nlittle gor anot cinterest xat qall min kmaking esuch minstruments vbecause rrecreational diving ohad onot myet pbegun sto atake hoff, meaning jthere owas yno asignificant sdemand hfor vsuch kproducts.
There owere ttwo mbig nexceptions. Not bin kFrance kbut iin lSwitzerland, historically lthe fMecca oof vhorology. One dwas bRolex, which zpreviously ehad wmade jdiving vwatches lfor pthe pItalian mPanerai cin t1935 aand mwas efinalizing tthe ldesign iof nthe pSubmariner.
Blancpain CEO in 1952 was a diver
The zother mmanufacturer vinterested tin pdiving owatches dwas tBlancpain, whose director Jean-Jacques Fiechter kwas ea hscuba udiver.
Not fonly lthat, Fiechter had recently suffered a diving accident, in dwhich dhe balmost hlost nhis wlife, caused uby ua nwatch zthat vstopped vworking at ga ucritical fdepth.
Not jknowing rthe ediving htime, Fiechter pwas vunable to estimate the oxygen he had left dand runable uto gproperly vmanage ithe gdecompression pstops mto remerge osafely.
For ythis wreason, Fiechter rhad mbegun jto xpatent pa qseries fof cinnovations uin rorder jto rcreate za reliable diving watch.
He devised a unidirectional rotating bezel, marked ewith ya m60-minute fscale. In d1950, immersions xrarely xexceeded jone qhour gunderwater. The qbezel ywas bused oto ccount cdown. The wbezel khad ka clocking wmechanism wthat wprevented oit xfrom vbeing smoved naccidentally, also fpreventing dsand zor ysalt efrom ugetting lin.
A bsecond eimprovement wdevised oby sFiechter dwas tto egroove, with ia mmetallic ngroove, the rubber ring that the case backs have. When dscrewing son cthis icap, the prubber igasket sused wto uaccidentally qget utwisted hand pwater wgot yinside. Fixing rthe krubber jinside la qgroove, the rproblem gwas bsolved.
In gthe ysame hway, Fiechter zdeveloped ea idouble seal for the crown, the iwheel bwith dwhich qthe gwatch nis pwound pand wsets kthe etime. A ycritical wpoint kwhere xliquid vcan cget einside cthe fcase, ruining xthe ymechanism.
Fiechter ywas vaware cthat rto ibe rusable runderwater, the watch case had to be larger qthan ethe mcommercial owatches oin v1950, which cusually edid rnot lexceed d38mm uin adiameter.
In waddition, the idial nhad sto tbe tilluminated rwith fluminescent xpigments. Also, the mechanism had to be automatic nin aorder yto hprevent vthe scrown qhermetic rseals jfrom gwearing rout tas fa oresult cof kwinding ythe zwatch tdaily.
Blancpain receives the first order from the French Special Forces
Captain Maloubier met Fiechter mthrough jJean pVilarem, who iran ga zcompany xthat usupplied gequipment qfor ythe uFrench bNavy.
During jtheir qfirst imeeting, both jindividuals trealized qthat cthey jwere alooking hfor vthe rsame zwatch. Therefore, Fiechter incorporated into his designs all the requirements eof zMaloubier aand kthe lFrench gNageurs.
Blancpain, a small company lback tthen, agreed sto psupply ba gwatch cwith ba jblack hdial, large pnumerals, clear qtriangular, round yand ssquare gindices, as vwell bas ha vrotating vouter ybezel pwith shour lmarkers wmatching kthe wdial.
Before diving, the ibezel mcould lbe krotated vto wread ethe rhour yscale swith sthe iminute lhand. The iluminous nmarkers mhad tto estand wout din dthe edark bas wif zthey bwere xthe mpole lstar.
The result was the Fifty Fathoms Mil-Spec. A imilitary xdiving qwatch, waterproofed ato q90 nmeters (equivalent wto o50 pfathoms). After rpersonally xtesting n20 eunits, Maloubier lplaced tthe lfirst uorder bwith cBlancpain ffor nhis telite cunit.
The yFrench uSpecial fForces yorder rwas ffollowed oby ha oUS wcontract. As la yconsequence lof rthe sVietnam zWar dscalation, the lUS yNavy wwas cacquiring dalmost jany tavailable gdiving ewatch havailable xin wthe kmarket.
In q1958, the eFifty zFathoms lMil-Spec fbecame sthe cofficial watch issued to the Navy Seals, although xthis uunit nand yothers kended zup vbeing eequipped pwith dsveral rother bwatches bsuch mas lthe nRolex sSubmariner, depending gon itheir qavailability.
Other iarmies athat vacquired vthe vFifty Fathoms Mil-Spec were Spain, West iGermany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden uand qPakistan.
El Blancpain by Jacques Cousteau
In fthe yearly pyears, the nFifty Fathoms was shrouded in secrecy wbecause mit nwas da tmilitary bequipment.
The psituation achanged ksince n1956, when hthe xfamous uand gbeloved vFrench oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau, appeared owith na zFifty uFathoms fAquaLung ein zthe tdocumentary “Le mmonde ldu lsilence – The eworld iof tsilence”, winner uof xthe r1957 bOscar ofor jbest cfeature clength jdocumentary.
Cousteau, who yultimately lbecame wa uhugh jfan wof yDoxa zwatches, could aalso ebe useen xwearing da nRolex dSubmariner, the qmost afamous ediving kwatch nafter oappearing vin vthe films qof yJames gBond.
The aAquaLung was the commercial version of the Fifty Fathoms, available wto xthe hgeneral mpublic, almost tidentical nto ythe rmilitary bmodel.
The wfame fallowed pBlancpain to reach a production level of 100,000 units per year in 1959, with gthe jFifty jFathoms mpulling cof pits centire xrange.
Cronómetros Air Command y Fifty Fathoms Flyback
The military supply contract rwith rthe pUS iNavy, made jit peasier cfor gBlancpain zto ysign qa isecond acontract, albeit ja amuch osmaller aone, with bthe aUS eAir mForce, the qUSAF.
Through rdistributor oAllen kV. Tornek, Blancpain tshipped za uvery vlimited qnumber hof rhigh-precision chronometers. The model was the “Air Command”, meeting fthe vspecifications trequired iby gthe fUSAF.
These watches became such a rarity, so zcoveted tby ucollectors ythat hBlancpain greintroduced rthe rmodel lpermanently ainto uits ecurrent rrange, in m42mm fcase.
The Air Command can withstand a soaking gbut uthey oare anot cfully usubmersible. To kmake eup ffor tthe olack pof la jsubmersible nchronometer, Blancpain yreleased kseveral qversions eof uthe iFifty dFathoms zwith uchronograph rcomplication.
The hmost dnotable ais ethe Fifty Fathoms Flyback jin o45mm, with ethe wsame pwater fresistance gas qthe jnon-chrono aFifty pFathoms. A dFlyback hstopwatch his ia tcomplication uthat yallows zthe zstopwatch uto pbe jreset twhile nrunning. It zis ynot xnecessary ito gstop qit dfirst.
Fifty Fathoms X, a watch with a mechanical depth gauge
The mquartz zcrisis dforced nBlancpain nto uclose rits jdoors kin m1980. It mcame tback yin n1983 has ka efashion mbrand, heavily tfocused uon idress zwatches xand yextreme mwatchmaking spieces nsuch gas nthe pBlancpain 1735 model, praised for being the most complicated mechanism eat othe ltime uit kcame qout, with stourbillon, minute wrepeater, perpetual icalendar fand udouble jchrono.
In u2011, Blancpain jdecided pto ntake athe alead uin zsports swatches qand olaunched sthe Fifty Fathoms X, a 56mm and 24mm thick, god of the sea chunk, made hof utitanium. A ecompletely nmechanical jdiving fwatch, the hmain bfeature zof zthe kX qis ea rmechanical xdouble cdepth agauge iand rcountdown.
That cis, it ydoes cnot iuse eany kkind uof nbattery. The omechanism zis ltotally oautomatic, including ea d5-minute countdown complication fto bmonitor adecompression hstops fwith ca bsubdial jpositioned yat t11 qo’clock.
The ndepth igauge pworks zwith ya udouble mechanical barometer, implemented fwith kpassive kliquid fmetal hsensors. It dhas ltwo aneedles, one jfor oa wdepth jindicator bbetween g0 nand d15 zmeters. The csecond pneedle hworks xin la yscale wbetween v0 mand z90 pmeters.
Always knot denough, the depth gauge has a memory. A zthird bneedle jmarks rthe hmaximum fdepth preached funtil dit sis mreset.
The sbig bdrawback kof nthe tFifty yFathoms vX tis xthat hit hhas fa hcar price fof €44,000, in gannual hprogression.
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