Blancpain marks the 70th anniversary of its Ladybird collection with the Lady B, a compact mechanical watch inspired by the landmark feminine timepieces developed under the leadership of Betty Fiechter—the first woman to lead a major Swiss watch manufacture.
Fiechter started her career at Blancpain as an apprentice at age sixteen before eventually taking over the company, making mechanical watches for women a core focus of the brand.
This vision took definitive shape in 1956 with the introduction of the historic Ladybird, which combined an unusually small round mechanical movement with a robust construction.
The Ladybird Bullet from 1956, and below, successive variations
That breakthrough established miniaturisation as a key part of Blancpain’s approach to women’s watches.
The Lady B takes up that idea in a contemporary form, with a spherical 19 mm housing designed around a compact automatic movement.
Its rounded architecture reflects the visual language of the mid-1950s, when organic forms were becoming increasingly prominent across architecture, industrial design, automobiles, and fashion.
The period’s fascination with curved volumes was reinforced by the emerging Space Age, creating an environment in which the sphere became a recurring motif.
The Lady B draws from this aesthetic without directly copying historical lines, translating past proportions and mechanical intent into a three-dimensional object for the wrist.
Conceived around Blancpain’s Manufacture Calibre 615, the watch required the movement’s exact dimensions to dictate the architecture from day one.
The spherical sapphire crystal, polished rehaut, integrated strap passage, and water-resistance elements were co-developed to enclose the calibre within a remarkably tight footprint.
Measuring 19 mm in diameter and 13.20 mm thick, the case has a total volume of just 2.9 cm³. Rather than being defined by its diameter, the watch is conceived as a three-dimensional volume, with the spherical shape giving it the appearance of a polished pebble.
The case is made in two parts, with the smaller back largely concealed when viewed from above.
More than thirty technical drawings were required to develop the construction, with the junction between the bezel and back carefully hidden by the case’s proportions and polished surfaces. The result is a continuous form with minimal visual interruption.
The exterior is available in polished stainless steel or 18K red gold, finished by hand using polished, satin-brushed, and micro-blasted treatments.
These operations are performed on the fully assembled watch, protecting each finished area while adjacent surfaces are worked. Furthermore, the engravings are mechanically cut rather than laser-etched, allowing the micro-dimensions to receive the same meticulous attention as a full-sized timepiece.
There are no conventional lugs. Instead, the calf leather strap passes directly through an opening machined into the solid metal, creating an integrated passage measuring 10 mm by 1.6 mm.
Its interior is micro-blasted to ensure smooth movement, while the edges and knurling are finished by hand using cabochon tools.
The strap can be swapped without tools by fitting it securely into the slot on the back.
The dial follows the same restrained approach. Shared by both metal versions, it features a warm beige opaline surface created via gold inlay and remains free of gem-setting.
The applied gold stick indices measure just 1.82 by 0.39 mm, featuring polished upper surfaces and sides. Simple hour and minute hands complement them, while the polished rehaut bounces light across the display and extends the curves of the outer architecture.
The Blancpain logo serves as the sole dial text, and the crown bears the historical JB initials.
Worn on a double-tour calf leather strap offered in seven colors—white, beige, mocha, burgundy, blue, coral, and purple—the watch wraps twice around the wrist, reinforcing its jewelry-like character while keeping its mechanical soul front and center.
Ranking among the smallest contemporary round automatic movements, Blancpain’s Manufacture Calibre 615 measures just 15.70 mm in diameter and 3.90 mm thick.
Comprising 180 components and 29 jewels, it beats at 3 Hz and delivers a 38-hour power reserve. Originally introduced in 1995 and continually refined—most notably through the integration of a silicon balance spring—the movement serves as the mechanical backbone of the Lady B.
Beneath its Côtes de Genève-decorated plates, the case-back geometry is precisely contoured to accommodate the swing of the oscillating weight.
This technical achievement directly echoes the lineage of the original Ladybird. Developed for the historic collection, the R52 and R55 calibres measured a mere 11.85 mm in diameter and 3.7 mm thick, establishing them as the smallest series-produced round mechanical movements of their era.
Achieving these micro-dimensions required sophisticated engineering solutions, including an extra gear-train wheel and a specialized shock-protection system. The resulting layout proved robust enough for daily wear, paving the way for numerous historical watch-jewelry creations.
Vintage advertisement presenting the Ladybird
To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Ladybird line, Blancpain is launching a traveling exhibition comprising nearly thirty historical pieces drawn straight from its archives.
The exhibition will visit boutiques in New York, Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo, and Seoul throughout 2026, with additional international stops planned for 2027.
The Blancpain Lady B is a regular-production model available starting September 17, 2026, via Blancpain boutiques and authorized retailers, with reference 0064 in polished stainless steel retailing at CHF 9,500 and the 18K red gold version retailing at CHF 14,500. blancpain.com
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