Blancpain: Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition

Blancpain presents the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition. A limited edition of 500 pieces inspired by a Blancpain diver’s watch from the 1970s characterised by a gradient-coloured sandy beige dial featuring a sunburst pattern. This nuance evokes the desert, and more specifically Death Valley in the United States, where Ernest H. Brooks II, pioneer of underwater photography and contributor to the Edition Fifty Fathoms project, made a spectacular dive in 1962. 

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date is for adventurers, enthusiasts and creative minds. In the 1970s, Blancpain’s own innovative mindset led the Brand to break with the traditional aesthetic codes of the Bathyscaphe models by producing a series of pieces featuring a cushion-shaped case, an inner rotating ring – replacing the conventional outer rotating bezel –, a gradient-coloured grey dial as well as the day of the week and date indication. The dial of the Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition adopts this style, which it combines for the first time with a subtle gradation of sandy beige, a hue that is new to the collection. 

Its shades and sunburst finish are combined with the boldly- sized rectangular hour-markers guarantee and a chapter ring punctuated with Arabic numerals that evokes the inner rotating ring of the 1970s watch. Just as on the period timepiece, the date and day of the week windows are located at 3 o’clock. The hands are coated with Super-LumiNova and feature the same baton-shaped design as earlier Bathyscaphe models. The dial of the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition is enhanced by a unidirectional rotating bezel with a brown ceramic insert and Liquidmetal hour-markers. 

While the vintage look, the mechanism is resolutely modern. Housed in a 43 mm satin-brushed steel case and water-resistant to 300 m, the in-house 1315DD movement offers all the performance attributes essential to a diver’s watch. It also features a five-day power reserve. Another major asset is its balance fitted with a silicon balance-spring, a guarantee of accuracy and resistance to magnetic fields. The sapphire crystal caseback of the watch allows one to admire the finishes including its gold oscillating weight coated with a NAC treatment.

Issued in a 500-piece limited series, the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition model comes with a sandy-coloured sail canvas strap matching the warm tones of the dial. (Price € 12.080)