his year, Blancpain released a 500-piece limited edition that pays tribute to its 1960s radiation-free diver’s watches, the “No Rad”. The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is accepted to be “the original diver’s watch” in the form of a black dial sports watch with a rotating bezel to measure elapsed time. The watch was built at the request of the French government, which Legend has it that the commanding officer of the unit, Captain Bob Maloubier, designed the watch, and it was Blancpain that eventually agreed to take the watch to production. The watch was subsequently adopted by a number of navies in Europe and further afield, including Israel and the United States.
