The iconic Fifty Fathoms Automatique and Fifty Fathoms Grande Date are now available with a Titanium bracelet.
2020 sees Blancpain equipping three versions of their iconic Fifty Fathoms with a brand new high-tech Titanium bracelet with its roots firmly planted in the past.
For me - someone who didn’t get into watches until the late 90s, IWC’s Aquatimer GST (released in 1998) was a pioneering Titanium diver’s model.
However, Blancpain's use of Titanium precedes the GST by more than three decades. Their use of Titanium dates back to the early 60s, when they produced a special series of MIL-SPEC II models for US Navy minesweeper teams.
BTW, Blancpain managed to reacquire said US Navy timepiece at an auction in 2015: its case was constructed from nickel silver, a non-magnetic copper, zinc and nickel alloy while its case-back made use of Titanium allowing for increased resistance to pressure.
At that time, Titanium had only really been adopted by the aerospace industry so was rarely seen in watchmaking. This means that Blancpain were likely the first Manufacture to use Titanium in watchmaking.
Fifty odd years later and Blancpain are no longer producing military watches rather they are a top tier luxury watchmaker.
However their Fifty Fathoms family is able to both ascetically and technically draw upon all those decades of military history.
In this regard, the FF Automatique and Grande Date models with their lovely new Ti bracelets reflect Blancpain's historical tradition of innovation.
Their remarkably light new Titanium bracelet complements the sail canvas and NATO straps with which these timepieces have been fitted until now.
Blancpain are rather proud of its production which involves a series of demanding assembly and finishing processes.
The hand satin-brushed links are joined together by means of transverse pins, allowing them to have a more fluid and flexible fit on the wrist.
Based on a patented system, the (usually lateral) screws are placed on the back of the links so as to preserve the smooth look and feel of the bracelet edges.
This further highlights the FF’s face with all its diving instrument-like attributes, such as SLN hour-markers and hands, as well as a unidirectional rotating diver’s bezel with a Sapphire inlay.
All three references are with 45mm Titanium cases that are water-resistant to 300 meters. The FF Automatique and Grande Date models respectively are powered by the Manufacture 1315 movement, the trusted engine of the modern Fifty Fathoms collection since its launch in 2007 – or the 6918B.
These calibers are resistant to magnetic fields thanks to the use of an Si (silicon) balance-spring. In addition these calibers provide five-days of power-reserve thanks to three series-coupled barrels. Their stunning finishing can be seen through the watches’ Sapphire crystal case-backs.
The Fifty Fathoms Automatique remains available with a black or blue sunburst dial, while the Fifty Fathoms Grande Date continues to be offered with a black dial.
Thoughts? I’m all for the use of Titanium; most of my watches are made from the stuff but there’s Titanium and there’s Titanium.
I would imagine that it goes without saying that a “top tier luxury watchmaker” would exclusively use Grade 5, right?
Of the three, I’d go black Big Date (cos I’m blind as f#@k), and as nice as the new Ti bracelet is, I’d have it on a black NATO as imo, it looks perfect like that. How bout’ you?
Now this is, finally, a Blancpain I can get behind!
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