Don’t you hate seeing that all-caps ‘DELAYED’ notification blinking beside your flight? Twiddling my thumbs at my departure gate, I observed fellow wayfarers amble in and out of the watch boutique opposite me. The intricately finished and painstakingly complicated timepieces of Blancpain’s Villeret collection, and those of sister brand Breguet, grabbed the attention of these window shoppers. To my dismay, most of them walked past the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, probably thinking to themselves, Ah, just another dive watch.
How many of these passers-by realised that Blancpain was, and is, an indispensable pioneer in dive-watch technology? Before Blancpain watchmaker Jean-Jacques Fiechter’s fortuitous near-death experience, divers just snapped on tough watches, crossed their fingers, and took the plunge. His chance meeting with Captain Robert ‘Bob’ Maloubier and Enseigne de Vaisseau Claude Riffaud, who had braved many high-risk missions, would turn the tide for military-grade watches.
Today, Blancpain’s dive watches pay tribute to the unmistakable features of the brand’s earliest submersible timepieces. Just like a retro-themed sports car or a delicately preserved concert hall, Blancpain dive watches
