A deeply evolved Blancpain:
The Blancpain 50th anniversary 50 Fathoms diver's watch

by Magnus Bosse

On November 22nd, 2003, Blancpain is proud to celebrate a very special annniversary:

The 50th birthday of the 50 Fathom diver's watch

Often overlooked, the 50 Fathoms diver's watch represents a pacemaker in the history of diver's watches. In 1953 it was the first serious (and serially produced) mechanical time measuring tool that could meet the strict requierements of professional divers, explorers and ingeneers.
It all started in 1952 when the French Naval Officer Robert Maloubier searched the market for a suitable diver's watch for the 'Nageurs de Combat', a French elite combat swimmers unit - and found nothing. Finally, he set up a list of all specifications a robust diver's watch has to feature:

- watertight up to 50 fathoms (91.45m)
- self-winding movement
- stainless steel case with screwed back and crown
- large luminous numerals and hands
- unidirectional rotating bezel displaying minutes markers to help divers calculating the diving time

Mr Maloubier confronted Blancpain with this list. Blancpain's watchmakers and engineers put their talents and know-how to work and came up with a compact marvel of precision mechanics: The Blancpain 50 Fathoms diver's watch:

 

Top bar:
Left: The original Blancpain 50 Fathoms diver's watch with the rotating bezel and the luminous hands and indices.
Right: The 1953 50 Fathoms with a steel bracelet

Lower bar:
Left: Robert Maloubier after a dive, wearing his Blancpain 50 Fathoms
The Blancpain 50 Fathoms became eventually a huge success due to its impressive technical details. Several armed forces equipped their staff with a Blancpain 50 Fathoms as official timekeepers, amongst them the USA (Navy SEALS), France (Les Nageurs de Combat), Germany (Bundesmarine) and Isreal. Furthermore, it was an essential part of scientific expeditions, and research groups worldwide were on Blancpain's customers list, for example the French 'Groupe d'étitudes et de recherches sous-marines' (GERS).
But not only marines and scientists trusted their Blancpain's, also prized film-makers were known to rely on Blancpain watches. When Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle won the 'Palme d'Or' at the 1956 Cannes film festival for their amazing underwater film 'The Silent World', several Blancpain 50 Fathoms already did an enourmous job as equippement of the entire film crew.

 

Left: Jacques-Yves Cousteau and people from his team

Several different versions of this famous diver's watch have been made until 1971, when the production stopped. The 50 Fathoms was the founder of a whole family of Blancpain diver's watches, consisting of

- the Bathyscaphe,
- the Aqualung and
- the AirCommand Chronograph.

During this 19 years, about 150000 Blancpain divers' watches were produced - quite a success! The story of the vintage Blancpain diver's watches will be topic of a comming article - so stay tuned on the Official Blancpain Forum!
When Blancpain faced its re-birth after 1983, the sporty and durable 50 Fathoms family of diver's watches also followed the success of the ultra-flat and elegant classic Blancpain watches: A 50 Fathoms, a GMT, an Aqualung and an AirCommand are offered to the Blancpain aficionados with an active lifestyle (from top left to bottom right; more information on the Blancpain web-page):

These watches are characterized by combining sportiness with an elegant design. At a diameter of 40mm (Aqualung: 38mm), they are generously proportionized, feature screwed backs, crowns and pushers, and thus allowing for a water resistancy between 100 and 300m. Also these contemporary interpretations of Blancpain's famous pace-making innovations offer optimal diving usability with the well readable dial, the luminous hands and the unidirectional rotating bezel (not with Aqualung).

Today, on November 22nd, 2003, Blancpain is happy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this remarkable technical marvel with a limited edition of the birthday child:
the limited 50th Anniversary 50 Fathoms diver's watch:

Equipped with a self-winding Cal. 1151 with center seconds and 100h power reserve, water resistancy up to 300m, and the unidirectional rotating bezel, this watch is of course a professional diver's tool - but it is also a hand-crafted marvel, and a real 'toy':

The design is a slightly modernised interpretation of the first 50 Fathoms watches: Dial, hands, case - and even the nifty rotatable bezel! If you take a close look, you'll see that it is (hand-!) made of sapphire, and it features an outcurved surface! This is a measure, together with the unusually thick sapphire crystal, to protect the bezel from being scratched by hard surfaces (e.g. rock) and is a world's first:
The Anniversary 50 Fathoms will be build in three series, I ,II and III, each limited to 50 pieces, whereby the 1st series is reserved for the asian market.
The watch comes with both, a 71-type metal bracelet (upper pic) and a tough rubber strap (long enough to wear the watch over a swim-suit) that effectively protects the lugs and has a cut-out around the crown for easy operating of the watch when wearing gloves. It is secured by a functional tang buckle (lower pics).
So, but what if you want to change the bracelet in favour of the rubber strap for your weekly diving adventure? No watchmaker's tools at hand? No problem, everthing is prepared for this case: A specially designed (and very tool-looking) watch-holder kit was developed that constists of a stand for the watch and the necessary tools. The stand has four hollow feet that unscrew and hold various tools and spare parts: extractor pins, screwdriver bits, bracelet-lug tubes and tube securing screws! I guess this is the right thing for the child in every man!

A worthy contemporary representative of Blancpain's heritage when it comes to make robust, reliable diver's timepieces. The uniquely shaped sapphire bezel, the extra-thick crystal, the sophisticated strap changing tool and the strict limitation will make this watch a collector's item. And, of course, due to its well thought-off technical features it is a professional diving timekeeper at the same time - like his ancestors 50 years ago!

With this watch, Blancpain also created a new special 50 Fathoms web-site and announced the sponsorship for a Whale Shark research project. You can find this informations on the new Blancpain 50 Fathoms web-page:
For the end of the story, here are the technical data of the Ref. 2200A-1130-71:
Case: diameter 40.3mm - height 14mm - water resistant up to 300m - stainless steel - unidirectionally rotatable bezel with curved sapphire inlet
Movement: Cal. 1151 self-winding- diameter 26.2mm - height 3.25mm - 21600 bph - 100h power reserve - 210 handfinshed components - 28 jewels

© Blancpain November 2003 by Magnus Bosse. Thanks to Christel Räber, Stephan Ceijka and Robert Maloubier for images and informations!