Shortly after the launch of the military focused Fifty Fathoms in the early ‘50s, Blancpain brought a different kind of civilian focused dive watch to market in the Bathyscaphe. The design would be typical of skin divers of the era, with a pragmatic format that emphasised legibility and ease of use. The commercial release came 70 years ago, and while the Bathyscaphe has had a sorted history of production over that span, the name has been a part of the modern Fifty Fathoms collection since 2013. With the anniversary at hand, Blancpain is releasing a limited edition Bathyscaphe complete with a throwback design (of sorts).
The modern Bathyscaphe has taken a multitude of forms and sizes, housing a range of complications to boot. A core feature of the modern design has remained the straight lugs and tower hands, and when reduced to a bare minimum, reveals its true identity. Those hour markers and even that hand shape were ripe for experimentation in the ‘50s and ‘60s, meaning it’s a watch that never really settled into a consistent identity. The point was the experimentation (and there are some pretty cool examples to be found). As such, a throwback tribute could take a variety of directions, and what Blancpain has done with this anniversary edition hones in on a specific variation produced in 1968.
This anniversary edition boasts a period correct 37.4mm steel case with a straight lug design that’s been fully polished. There are no crown guards, and the steel bezel assembly gets a fully indexed ceramic insert. The dial sits under a box sapphire crystal, and gets a brown sunburst finish. The brown palette continues into the bar shaped hour markers and hands with that aged lume look. The scripted Blancpain logo has been scrapped in favor of a straightforward san-serif situation, and despite all the browns, it is this detail that does most of the heavy lifting in providing a throwback vibe. Finally, a date window sits at three o’clock as it would have in the original examples.
It’s a handsome design in a perfectly sized package, but the sunburst dial and overt brown tones feel slightly forced. The dial plate in particular will feel very much of the era it was created, and I don’t personally believe these dials will age well in this kind of a context. It would be easy to list off the things I’d have liked to have seen in this reference, but Blancpain has a way of using these limited edition launches as a starting point. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them continue to build on this design, and I certainly hope that they do so in a less glam’d out manner down the line.
Blancpain is using their automatic caliber 1150 with 100 hours of reserve on tap, and it is visible through an exhibition back. The watch will be limited to just 300 examples, each priced at $18,300 on a leather strap. That’s a tall order but with such few examples it will no doubt find its market. Overall, I love the spotlight on the Bathyscaphe, and look forward to seeing additional evolutions built in the same case. Blancpain
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