Blancpain Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Watch
In 1953, the bathyscaphe Trieste descended nearly 1,080 meters into the Mediterranean off Capri, a record dive that made international news. Ten days later, Blancpain's CEO at the time, an avid diver named Jean-Jacques Fiechter, registered the name "Bathyscaphe" for a watch that wouldn't actually launch for another three years. When it arrived in 1956, it was built as a smaller, more wearable civilian counterpart to the Fifty Fathoms, the professional dive watch Blancpain had introduced in 1953 for French combat divers. This 70th-anniversary edition reproduces a specific model from 1968, chosen for its balanced proportions, in the same 37.4mm steel case with a revived glass box crystal and a ceramic bezel insert carrying lacquered numerals. The dial keeps a mid-century Blancpain logo, baton hands, and vintage-toned Super-LumiNova, paired with a leather strap instead of rubber, a nod to the Bathyscaphe's original identity as the more casual, land-friendly sibling to the Fifty Fathoms. Inside is Blancpain's Manufacture caliber 1150, an automatic movement with a 100-hour power reserve, a silicon hairspring for magnetic resistance, and an 18k gold oscillating weight visible through the sapphire caseback. Limited edition of 300.
