Fifty Fathoms Grande Date
The contemporary dive watch.
The new Fifty Fathoms has been updated with Blancpain’s signature large date, displayed in two windows located at 6 o’clock and adjustable via the crown. In addition to the enhanced readability due to the large size of the numerals, its design changes the date instantly at midnight without excess energy consumption from the running train of the watch. Those advantages have been brought to the new Fifty Fathoms Grande Date.
The new model retains Blancpain’s base caliber 1315, which is 100% in-house like all Blancpain movements. The 1315 is equipped with three mainspring barrels and achieves a five-day power reserve. The use of a non-magnetic silicium hairspring protects the movement from magnetic fields
without the need for an inner soft iron case. Thus, the movement of this Fifty Fathoms can now be admired through a clear sapphire case back.
The 45 mm satin-finished titanium case has been fitted with the traditional Fifty Fathoms unidirectional rotating bezel. Fashioned in sapphire, which only diamond surpasses in hardness, the domed bezel offers extraordinary scratch resistance.
Consistent with its diving heritage, the new Fifty Fathoms Grande Date is offered with a sail-canvas or NATO strap.
Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel
Robust and functional: a pillar of the Fifty Fathoms collection.
The new Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel brings new functionality to the sport collection, thus enhancing its use as a daily wear timepiece. This is the first time that a Bathyscaphe model features indications for the day of the week, date, and month shown in windows and arranged in a logical order. This annual calendar fully accounts for all the irregularities in the length of months except for February, thus requiring adjustment only once per year at the end of that month.
Powering the Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel is a new caliber, the 6054.P, based upon Blancpain’s in-house twin-barrel 1150 movement, which has been modified with extended bridges creating a wider opening on the caliber.
The black ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel of the new Bathyscaphe with its Liquidmetal® markings dramatically accents the meteor gray dial.
The 43mm satin-finished steel case can be fitted with a sail-canvas or NATO strap, as well as a metal bracelet.
Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde
The Blancpain Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde reasserts Blancpain’s attachment to authentic horological values. The signature aesthetics of the collection are the double stepped (double pomme) bezel, thin profile, as well as elegant understated hands and indexes. To maintain a clean profile, unmarred by calendar adjustments requiring dimples on the case sides, the Villeret philosophy takes advantage of Blancpain’s patented exclusive under-lug correctors. Neither calendar indication requires a pusher or tool, as the day of the week can be set with a fingertip via a hidden corrector, and the date is adjusted through the crown. 
To ensure visual balance, the day of the week is positioned on an arc between 7 and 9 o’clock, while the large date windows are placed between 5 and 6 o’clock. Further underscoring the sophistication of the new Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde, both the large date and day of the week change instantly at midnight, while the retrograde day returns smartly from Sunday to Monday to start the week. In addition to the calendar displays, this new model features an elongated central seconds hand bearing the Blancpain initials on its counterweight.
Powering this Villeret model is Blancpain’s new 6950GJ in-house movement based on caliber 1150 with its two mainspring barrels offering 72 hours of power reserve. The fine Côtes de Genève finishing and honeycomb guilloché motif adorning the gold rotor are visible through the clear case back.
Several options of the new Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde are being offered: red gold with silver opaline dial, stainless steel with white dial, and for both, a choice of alligator strap or metal bracelet. All versions are 40 mm in diameter.
Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde
The Blancpain flying tourbillon, produced in-house as are all Blancpain movements, has been an integral part of the traditional watchmaking scene for nearly three decades. This construction offers an unsurpassed view of the tourbillon’s key components, unobstructed by the upper bridge featured in conventional tourbillon designs. The new Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde takes this concept one step further, as the lower bridge has been removed and replaced by a clear sapphire disk. The tourbillon cage, its balance wheel and its escapement seem to be floating in space above the tourbillon’s fixed wheel attached to the clear disk.
Neither the jump hour nor retrograde minute complications have appeared in Blancpain wristwatches, thus this new timepiece marks their debut within Blancpain’s collections. These hours and minutes displays are grouped together, with the hours window placed on the retrograde minutes counter. In the Blancpain Le Brassus Métiers d’Art studio, the Manufacture has devoted its technical expertise to the cause of aesthetics in creating a classic grand feu enamel dial using the traditional champlevé technique. The artisans begin by hollowing out the solid gold base of the dial to create small compartments. Thereafter, several layers of enamel are each hand painted onto the dial and fired at a temperature of around 800 degrees Celsius. Adding diamond-polished gold rings around the hours window as well as the tourbillon porthole lends a further sophisticated touch, before the minutes counter is applied to the dial, creating an intriguing depth effect.
This concern for detail is also reflected in the movement, of which the bridges are adorned with a hand-guilloché pattern. Through the transparent sapphire case back, the wearer can also admire the ratchet-wheel featuring Blancpain’s famous beveled wheel-rim design, as well as consulting the power reserve indicated by a guilloché disk.
The new Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde is housed in a double stepped 42 mm red gold case. It is teamed with an alligator strap or metal bracelet, both secured by a folding clasp.
A 20-piece platinum limited-edition version is also available.
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