You know, I actually wasn’t going to write about this watch. An $18,000 vintage inspired dive watch from a brand that doesn’t hold a ton of personal relevance to me was just not super high on my list of priorities as Geneva Watch Days prep is now in full swing (this time next week, I will be surviving on CHF 10 Coke Zeros). But, over the weekend the collective watch internet kind of lost its mind over the new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Limited Edition, so I shifted my to-do list around a bit and, well, here we are.
Of course, there have been a lot of memes and jokes about this watch sharing a certain similarity to the Seiko 62MAS and the many, many reinterpretations and reissues of that watch over the years. I’m frankly less interested in those aesthetic similarities than I am in the very conceit of this watch, what it illuminates about Blancpain, and the way it fits into the neverending conversation around price sensitivity that we’ve been having for months as we see MSRPs shoot higher and higher. But what I’ll say about the appearance of the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Limited Edition is simply that, at this point, 70 years on from the advent of this type of watch, I don’t think any brand really owns the aesthetic identity of something so generic. Lots and lots of watches from all kinds of brands look like this, just like lots and lots of watches look like a Speedmaster, or a Calatrava. The design tropes of these watches are, functionally if not literally, in the public domain.
To break it down in detail, what we have here is a 300 piece limited edition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Bathyscaphe, which followed 1953’s Fifty Fathoms as a more recreational alternative as diving began to grow in popularity. This new piece takes inspiration from a 1968 reference of the Bathyscaphe, and lifts the vintage Blancpain logo as well as the sunburst gray dial from that watch. There’s also tan lume present on the hands and markers that immediately contextualize this watch as “vintage inspired” in the clearest terms possible. The case size also borrows from the late 60s Bathyscaphe, coming in at 37.4mm (in steel). It’s 12.3mm in height and 46.5mm from lug to lug.
Photo credit: Tim Vaux
The watch runs on the Caliber 1150, an automatic movement with 100 hours of power reserve. As with all Blancpain movements, it’s a luxury oriented design with a (slightly) openworked, solid gold rotor and tasteful but well executed finishing. It’s not mindblowing or super elaborate by any means, but it’s multiple steps up from the utilitarian that many have been conditioned to expect on a watch that looks like this (which is to say, a watch that looks like a tool watch) and perhaps exists to remind owners why their credit statements are showing up with a new and rather hefty charge.
Because the retail price for this watch, which again is stainless steel and yes does bear a physical resemblance to a variety of Seikos that can be had for under $1,000 all day long, is $18,300.
Photo credit: Tim Vaux
That’s a lot of money, and we’ve been conditioned over the last few years of Blancpain releases to expect a certain Fifty Fathoms tax on new releases. I think this one causing such a heated conversation across the watch internet because it puts into clear focus, by calling out the anniversary right in the name of the watch, the way that Blancpain has changed so dramatically over the course of decades. They were, 70 years ago, a much more humble brand making watches that were a necessity for a new sport and leisure activity. They’ve been fully re-molded today as a capital “L” Luxury brand, and this watch, more than most they’ve made over the last few release cycles, is really wearing the uniform of something that is very much not luxury at all. It all feels a bit like cosplay to me. Blancpain
