Blancpain Debuts Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe With Blue Dial And Sedna Gold Case

Since its unveiling in the late 1950s, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe was designed as a gentleman’s dive watch in a size that that can be worn every day. In many ways this timepiece was well ahead of its time and is certainly suited to the current trend of sports watches that can be worn daily. Maybe that’s why the Swiss watch brand reissued a contemporary version of the watch in 2013 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms, the first professional dive watch. After all, the Bathyscaphe was originally created as an elegant complement the rugged Fifty Fathoms.

Since its reissue, the Bathyscaphe has been produced in a variety of models, with multiple complications and materials. This new piece is the first time to combine a blue dial and bezel with a 43mm Sedna gold case. Sedna gold is a proprietary red gold alloy by the Omega watch brand made by combining gold, copper and palladium. Both Omega and Blancpain are owned by the Swatch Group.

Blancpain hopes the appeal of the new model will be broad and diverse as it is being marketed as an elegant timepiece for lovers of water sports and beautiful watches as well as experienced divers.

Blue symbolizes Blancpain’s passion and commitment to the underwater world. The deep hue chosen for the dial and bezel is completed with a sunburst finish. Rectangular hour-markers and the chapter ring composed of Ceragold (another proprietary gold by Omega) and Super-LumiNova dots. The dial is further adorned with a slim seconds hand and a date window. The hour and minute hands are also rectangular and coated with Super-LumiNova, evoking the Bathyscaphe watches of the 1950s.

The Sedna gold unidirectional rotating bezel is fitted with a ceramic insert time scale and hour-markers filled with Ceragold. The watch is water resistant to 300 meters.

It is powered by the 1315 caliber automatic movement with an impressive five-day power reserve, produced by three series-coupled barrels. A silicon balance-spring ensures regularity of the oscillation frequency as well as impermeability to magnetic fields. The movement is further enhanced with sandblasted, satin-finished, snailed Sedna gold oscillating weight engraved with the Blancpain logo, and snailed and beveled bridges. All of this can be seen through the sapphire caseback.