Blancpain Celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the Iconic Fifty Fathoms
Welcome to Dialed In, Esquire's weekly column bringing you horological happenings and the most essential news from the watch world since March 2020.
In an industry as old as Swiss watchmaking, anniversaries naturally come along at a fairly quick clip. Some anniversaries, however, are bigger than others. Take the 70th birthday, this year, of the quintessential professional dive watch. Actually, make that three birthdays. This year, you see, marks the anniversary of not just one iconic watch in the dive world, but a trio of them. We will no doubt get to the Rolex Turn-o-Graph (a rather neglected forerunner of 1954’s Submariner debut) and the Zodiac Super Sea Wolf in the near future, but we start the year’s Dialed In watch coverage with Blancpain’s groundbreaking Fifty Fathoms.
Released in 1953, the watch was the brainchild of Blancpain CEO Jean-Jacques Feichter, himself a keen diver, who set out to create a robust and functional solution to some of the perils he himself ran into underwater (including, on one occasion, running out of air mid-dive). Feichter himself tested the prototype in 1952.
According to legend, after the watch hit the market, Feichter was approached by Claude Riffier, who worked for Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s Aqualung company. Aqualung was supplying dive equipment to a new French Navy diving team. The navy approved and adopted the production model as it was, while requesting greater antimagnetism, and favorable reviews of the Fifty Fathoms fed back to Blancpain. One particularly notable account was of a mission where a watch had been lost in 18 meters of water during a dive, only to retrieved more than 24 hours later—still working perfectly.
This month, available for preorder ($17,400), is a new special edition of the Fifty Fathoms. It's being produced in three series, each limited to 70 pieces, and each dedicated to a specific global market: the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and Asia-Pacific. Perhaps the biggest news is a new 42mm case size, distinct from the standard 45mm and limited-edition 40mm sizes. Naturally, all three editions will feature the series number on the dial. In this case, "70th Anniversary Series I" adorns the black sunburst dial at 6 o'clock.
Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Series I
blancpain.com
blancpain.comBeyond that, the new watch hews quite close to the original while nodding to the additions made with a series of 2003 anniversary editions that placed the FF firmly back on Blancpain’s standard production run. It carries the iconic domed sapphire bezel insert that sets the Fifty Fathoms apart, as well as the simple, rugged, lumed display that made the it such a success in the first place. The in-house 1315 automatic movement, which Blancpain introduced in 2007, adds modern know-how and performance, with a five-day power reserve from three separate barrels.
The Fifty Fathoms is iconic because in 1953 it established a rugged—and deceptively simple—design concept for the ultimate subaquatic tool watch. In doing so it was quickly a yardstick, defining many of the hallmarks to which almost all dive watches have subscribed, more or less, ever since. A double gasket kept the water out even when the crown was pulled out for adjustments. An automatic movement inside made those adjustments a less regular need. The rotating unidirectional bezel—another first—was created in such a way that it could not be knocked out of place by accident, requiring a three fingered push down to adjust it. As well as the French Navy, early adopters included Jacques Cousteau himself, who wore one along with several of his team members in the groundbreaking documentary The World of Silence which, in 1956, made Cousteau and his ship Calypso world famous.
About those fifty fathoms. As anyone familiar with pirate speak will know, a fathom equals six feet. Fifty of them makes three hundred feet, or 91.5 meters, then considered the outer limits of accessible depth to a diver with a single aqualung unit. Much sexier than meters.
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