Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatic Titanium 45 mm Full Set 2019

The story

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is one of the world's best-known divers and is considered the first military diving watch! This model was created in 1953, at the request of Captain Robert Maloubier and Enseigne de Vaisseau Claude Riffaud, who had created the Corps des Nageurs de Combat, France's first combat swimmer unit, a year earlier, and were then looking for a sturdy, reliable diving watch suited to military requirements. Thus was born the Fifty Fathoms, water-resistant to a depth of 50 fathoms, as its name suggests.

Presentation

The watch we present today in this 10h10 is a Fifty Fathoms Automatique, a model virtually identical to the one launched in 2007, when Blancpain relaunched the Fifty Fathoms as a collection in its own right, except that this one has been made in a satin-brushed titanium case. An ideal choice for a diver, titanium being renowned for its lightness, hypoallergenic qualities and resistance to corrosion, all of which are perfectly suited to a contemporary Fifty Fathoms.

Today's Fifty Fathoms looks very much like the original model, but has received a series of improvements that make it one of the best divers available on the market. Indeed, if we take the bezel as an example. Blancpain was the first Manufacture to integrate a bezel with a unidirectional 60-minute scale on a watch. Now, in redeveloping the Fifty Fathoms, the brand knew it had to do something different from the norm. Indeed, most modern diver's watches feature a ceramic bezel, but Blancpain opted for a curved sapphire crystal bezel, with fully luminescent indexes and numerals. An aesthetic choice giving it a "neo-retro" look akin to vintage bakelite bezels.

The case of this contemporary Fifty Fathoms measures 45 mm wide and is made entirely of titanium, a slight increase on the original 42 mm diameter. Blancpain has equipped this watch with a pair of sword-shaped hour and minute hands and a red-tipped seconds hand. The indexes, a mixture of Arabic numerals and triangular indexes, and hands are all filled with a generous application of Super-LumiNova. The coloring of the bezel, despite the slight magnification of the curved sapphire insert, harmonizes perfectly with the sunray-blue dial. The date is located at 4:30 in a color-matched aperture, a position that doesn't obstruct any of the indexes, a crucial detail for tracking elapsed time during a dive.

Finally, this watch is easy to wear thanks to those curved lugs, which ensure that the bracelet, made of water-resistant sailcloth and rubber lining, fits perfectly on the wrist.

A haute horlogerie caliber designed for tool watches

This watch is powered by an automatic manufacture movement, caliber 1315. The latter, visible through the sapphire caseback, combines haute horlogerie details and finishes with features worthy of a toolwatch.

One of the most impressive aspects of this movement is its 120-hour (or five-day) power reserve, the result of the serial coupling of three mainspring barrels. Blancpain was one of the first to adopt silicon technology, and the calibre 1315 balance spring is made from this high-tech material. The use of a silicon balance-spring offers a number of advantages, including greater resistance to shocks and magnetic fields. The latter factor is essential for the Fifty Fathoms, as one of the features of the original watch was the use of a soft-iron Faraday cage. This caliber also uses a variable-inertia balance with solid gold square-headed regulating screws. This is an ideal regulating system, as it offers maximum shock resistance, which is ideally suited to the mission of this ultimate diving watch.

Finally, from a finishing point of view, the calibre 1315 is sober and refined. There's a soleillée finish on the bridges and precise chamfering of the bevels. These elements lend the movement's design a certain level of prestige, in keeping with Blancpain's manufacture status, while not betraying the tool-watch origins of this Fifty Fathom.

The package

This watch is in excellent condition. It will be delivered to you Full Set with its case and all its documents. Sold in 2019, this model comes with a one-year Lepage 10h10 warranty!