Blancpain Revives Vintage Skin-Diver Proportions to Target Civilian Collector Segment

Dialed In Swiss-Made, Mid-Century Inspired: Meet the Fossil Signature CS-1 Introducing The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Utility – Limited Edition for Hodinkee Blancpain marks the occasion with a 300-piece limited edition heavily inspired by a reference from 1968. The 1950s were big years for Blancpain—first in 1953 with the introduction of the Fifty Fathoms, then a few short years later in 1956, when the Bathyscaphe arrived as a "civilian counterpart" as diving gained popularity. Revived in 2013, it's remained a core part of the modern Fifty Fathoms lineup ever since. We're not strangers to the Bathyscaphe here at Hodinkee, either—we teamed up with Blancpain on our own limited edition back in 2019. Today, to mark the Bathyscaphe's 70th anniversary, Blancpain is releasing a 300-piece limited edition that takes inspiration from the 1968 reference and updates it in all the right ways. The homage to the '68 piece is evident at a quick glance; the first thing I noticed was the vintage Blancpain logo, which sets the tone for what the brand is trying to do here. The sunburst meteor grey dial is lifted straight from the 1968 piece as well, as are the baton hands and indexes in 18k white gold, both filled with a vintage-colored Super-LumiNova that gives the lume a warmer, aged look straight out of the box. The steel bezel extends into a ring at the base of the box crystal—another detail

Vintage-inspired dive watches are not in short supply. We’ve seen many contemporary remakes of iconic models with a great deal of history, but very few reproduce their source material as closely and as faithfully as Blancpain’s new Bathyscaphe. Specially made to celebrate the line’s 70 th birthday, this 300-piece limited edition returns to the Bathyscaphe’s landmark design, specifically from 1968, preserving the compact 37.4mm case and skin-diver character while introducing modern materials and robust movement technology. Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Limited Edition Ref. 5903 1110 63A First introduced in 1956, Blancpain’s Bathyscaphe was produced as the more relaxed and civilian sibling to the Fifty Fathoms. The latter was labelled and built as a professional diving instrument generally measuring around 41mm to 42mm, which was considered exceptionally large for an everyday wristwatch during the 1950s and ‘60s. The Bathyscaphe, on the other hand, was smaller, more elegant and better suited for daily wear. Yet it brought similar aquatic capabilities firmly placing it in the emerging skin-diver category, as recreational diving gained popularity. For the anniversary edition, the brand decided to go with a 1968 model that distilled this identity of the Bathyscaphe name really well. The watch is housed in a new stainless-steel case, retaining the 37.4mm diamet

While the fact that the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms was one of the earliest dive watches on the market is now well-known, this professional, mostly military-issued model wasn’t the only one produced by the brand. There is another watch in the collection that was created back in 1956, as the civilian counterpart to the Fifty Fathoms (the pro version), a so-called skin diver timepiece with more restrained looks and credentials: the Bathyscaphe . A watch that reflected the vision of Blancpain’s then-CEO and passionate diver, Jean-Jacques Fiechter, to offer something more wearable, it now celebrates its 70th anniversary. And Blancpain prepared something pretty cool for us, with a faithful reproduction of an emblematic model from 1968, the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary. We’re not here to talk about the classic, professional Fifty Fathoms, but about its small sister, the Bathyscaphe … And if you know your diving history, you’re surely aware that this name has some importance. The name “ Bathyscaphe ” refers to the pioneering deep-sea exploration vessel conceived by Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard in the 1940s, a free-diving, self-propelled deep-sea submersible. Designed to reach the greatest depths of the ocean, the Bathyscaphe represented a major milestone in humanity’s exploration of the underwater world, to the point of breaking one record of depth after another. The stor