Results for Blancpain

Introducing: The 38mm Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

On the heels of last week's mother-of-pearl dials "for her," the brand unveils a litany of versatile divers in steel, titanium, and red gold "for every wrist."

First Look - The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatic, now Available in Compact 38mm Cases

One of the earliest dive watches, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms has long been one of the most emblematic models available on the market. In 2007, the classic Fifty Fathoms Automatique (ref. 5015) arrived with its large (even oversized) 45mm case and calibre 1315 – two fundamental elements of the permanent collection. And this size has […]

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

[This feature article has been updated to incorporate the newest models – including the new 42mm and 38mm sizes – in the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms collection as of 2025. Prices listed are current as of this article's posting but subject to change.] Founded in 1735 in Villeret, Switzerland, Blancpain is the oldest luxury watchmaker in the world, full stop. The 287-year-old manufacture, now headquartered in Le Brassus in the Swiss Vallée de Joux, has an uninterrupted history of producing horological complications but its most iconic timepiece in this modern era began its life as a tool watch for military divers in the (relatively) recent year of 1953. The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, however, is not just any tool watch; it’s recognized as one of the foundational examples of the modern dive watch, helping to establish a template that many others would follow. Today, it’s the foundation for a vast and versatile collection within the Blancpain portfolio - despite the fact that the watch almost didn’t make it out of the 1970s.  DIVING INTO HISTORY The quest to make a watch water-resistant enough for diving was already well underway when Jean-Jacques Fiechter, then-CEO of Blancpain, began working on the watch that would become the Fifty Fathoms. Rolex had developed the water-resistant Oyster case in 1926, which paved the way for watches such as Panerai’s Radiomir in 1936, which combined a waterproof case with a luminous dial for the underwater missions of the Italian n...

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms range reaches new depths with the Automatique 38mm

Is this the Goldilocks-sized Fifty Fathoms release everyone has been waiting for?The post The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms range reaches new depths with the Automatique 38mm appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Blancpain Adds 38mm Mother-of-Pearl Variants to Fifty Fathoms Dive Watch Lineup

Visit: A Look Inside Biver Watches

The day I visited Biver started like any other – with breakfast. But it wasn’t a normal breakfast, because I was seated opposite Jean-Claude Biver, at his own kitchen table. A few days after Watches & Wonders wrapped up I had the opportunity to visit the brand’s atelier in the countryside near Geneva, and I was lucky enough to spend some time with the man himself before he went to the airport; he was headed to Boston to deliver a guest lecture at Harvard Business School. Dismissed in his early career as a ‘nostalgia salesman,’ Mr Biver helped pioneer the contemporary luxury watch industry in the midst of the Quartz Crisis by proving the consumer demand for artisanal mechanical watches. The story is well-known but it bears repeating; Mr Biver, together with his friend Jacques Piguet, head of the esteemed Frederic Piguet manufacture, paid CHF22,000 to buy the rights to a defunct brand from what would later become Swatch Group. Their deft products and marketing made Blancpain one of the stars of the mechanical watch renaissance, allowing the pair to sell the brand back to Swatch a decade later for CHF60 million. From left to right: CEO James Marks, Jean-Claude Biver, and Pierre Biver. Image – Biver The success of Blancpain was extraordinary and helped pave the way for the rebirth of other brands like A. Lange & Söhne. But this was just the opening act. After selling Blancpain back to Swatch, Mr Biver helped put Omega on the wrist of James Bond and transformed Hub...

Introducing Two New Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm Models “For Women”

Please don’t call it a size reduction; it’s a completely reworked design to get perfectly balanced proportions. Introducing two new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm models for women. Yes, Blancpain tells us explicitly that these new “FF” models are for women only. That’s not very 2025, but in the brand’s defense, these watches pay tribute […] Visit Introducing Two New Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm Models “For Women” to read the full article.

Introducing: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique - Now In 38mm

A Fifty Fathoms ''for her'' in a size that everyone's been asking for.

New: Blancpain x Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss

GREEN ABYSS is the latest model in the Blancpain x Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Collection which celebrates Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms, the first true diver’s watch launched in 1953. 

The Best Thus Far? Meet The Blancpain × Swatch Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss

The Swatch press release for this watch says it’s “inspired by the unexplored.” The deep green new Blancpain × Swatch Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss with touches of black (bezel) and beige (markers, hands, bezel numerals, etc.) takes inspiration from the ocean’s depths. Blancpain × Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss This is the ninth Blancpain […] Visit The Best Thus Far? Meet The Blancpain × Swatch Fifty Fathoms Green Abyss to read the full article.

Swatch x Blancpain Green Abyss: Plastic, Automatic, and Weirdly Desirable

Discover the new Blancpain x Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms 'Green Abyss'-a $400 automatic dive watch dropping June 7, blending playful design with mechanical credibility.

Introducing: Blancpain X Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms 'Green Abyss'

Just in time for summer, the Scuba Fifty Fathoms is back and verdant.

Swatch adds a stealthy green number to its Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection with the Green Abyss

From the deep, murky depths arises a new Thrifty Fathoms...The post Swatch adds a stealthy green number to its Blancpain Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection with the Green Abyss appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

The Evergreens - The History of The Citizen Aqualand, The Diving Icon Celebrating 40 Years

Traditional dive watches have never waned in popularity, despite modern diving computers and even smart watches pushing them into technical obsolescence. The dawn of early divers in the 1950s is defined by two brands and two watches – the Rolex Submariner and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. State of the art at the time and able […]

Top Luxury Watch Brands: 60 To Know In 2026

How well do you know your luxury watch brands? The timepiece industry is populated by many dozens of companies - a handful of them still independent, many others now members of a larger luxury-goods conglomerate - each with its own unique origin story, historical highlights, and technical and aesthetic brand DNA. Here we've gathered what we consider the 60 watch brands that should be on the radar of watch enthusiasts and given you a brief rundown of what makes each one special. In the interest of being informative (and transparent), we've divided them into sections: brands owned by the two major Swiss luxury groups (Swatch and Richemont), brands within the French LVMH Group, Japanese Citizen Group, and the small Swiss concern Sowind; the largest, best-known independent companies, and the leading brands among the rest of the independents. We've even added a little tidbit of trivia for each brand. TOP LUXURY WATCH BRANDS: SWATCH GROUP BLANCPAIN Blancpain was founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, making it one of the oldest watch brands in existence - one of the few, in fact, that can say it’s been making watches longer than the United States has been a country. The maison offers a plethora of small and high complications  in its extensive and elegant Villeret collection, named for the Swiss village where it originated before moving to the Vallee de Joux in 1983, including a so-called “complete” calendar, a signature complication but these days Blancpain ...

Happenings: Blancpain Unveils New York City Flagship In The Heart Of Manhattan

The Le Brassus-based watchmaker is celebrating the opening of a new boutique with a weekend of fun in NYC.

Watches, Stories, and Gear: Mission Everest, The Yeti Cayo, Ricoh’s GR IV, and Blancpain’s USA Flagship

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear. A New Yeti Backpack: The Cayo As summer rapidly approaches, Yeti has released a new family of backpacks they’ve named the “Cayo”. Made from a “Dry-Hide” shell with RF welded seams and PU coated zippers, the Cayo is designed to be highly water resistant, but not fully waterproof like their Panga line of bags.  This new pack also features two quick access pockets, one horizontally at the top and an additional vertical pocket on the side that can be used to store a water bottle, along with a “Comfortcomb” mesh backpanel aimed to help breathability.  This new line of bags is currently available in two sizes, 15 and 25 liters, with an additional 35 liter size coming later this summer. For those interested, more images along with full specs, are available on Yeti’s product page, here. ThruDark Completes Mission:Everest With traditional Everest expeditions lasting upwards of ten weeks, a team of four British military veterans set out to push the limits of what is possible in high-altitude mountaineering: Depart from London, Scale Mount Everest, and safely return home in under seven days.  After months of training, crafting custom “summit suits” , and th...

Gatherings: An Evening With Blancpain In NYC

Celebrating the world's oceans and the communities dedicated to their preservation.

Blancpain Swatch Review

The origin of Blancpain x Swatch is the story of two vastly different watchmakers. One is the oldest watch brand in the world, in existence since 1735, and renowned for making some of the most high-end luxury timepieces in the industry, regularly carrying prices of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. The other traces its origins only to the 1980s and made its name by producing plastic-cased, mass-market fashion watches for youthful consumers at average prices around $300. Through a convoluted series of events arising from watch-industry upheavals in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the newbie department-store brand bought the historical prestige brand, making it part of a modern-day Murderers Row of legacy watchmakers within what is now known as the Swatch Group. Both brands continued to do what they did best, and never did their efforts really intersect. Blancpain has adhered to its philosophy of never, in its almost-300-year history, making a watch with a quartz movement. Swatch, by contrast, was the brand that brought quartz into the mainstream of Swiss watchmaking in the first place, and still uses quartz movements in most (but not all) of its voluminous output of watches. But the watchword (no pun intended) of the 21st Century timepiece industry seems increasingly to be, Never Say Never. The Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch (Obviously) Omega x Swatch MoonSwatch "Mission On Earth" In 2022 came a scenario that was somehow both unthinkable and inevitable at the same ...

Be Among The First To Discover Blancpain 2025 Novelties At New York Flagship

This is the Company Quietly Making the Rubber Straps for Nearly Every Brand in the Industry

Rubber straps are relatively new in the centuries-old history of wristwatches, and their widespread popularity is even more recent. Like many elements of watchmaking, rubber straps first came into use for a specific utilitarian purpose, and now-in a world that no longer needs watches as practical tools-rubber straps no longer need to be purely functional. They can simply be a fashion statement.  The first rubber straps appeared in the 1960s throughout the catalogs of brands like Rolex, Tudor, IWC, and Blancpain. Fittingly, these rubber straps were perfect for sport models like dive watches thanks to their lightweight build, durability, and resistance to the elements. Still, it would be another three decades before the rubber strap would transform from an occasional companion for a tool watch to a prominent bracelet material seen across styles and brands at all price points.  Hublot was at the forefront of shifting the perception and prevalence of the rubber strap. In 1980, the brand debuted the material in its catalog in a surprising way. The Classic Original (later revived as the Classic Fusion) featured Hublot’s signature porthole shaped case rendered in polished and brushed gold, complete with a black rubber strap, perfectly complementing the model’s black dial. The watch was not only the brand’s first to showcase a rubber strap but also the first luxury wristwatch ever to combine a rubber strap with a precious metal case as opposed to stainless steel. The d...

Business News: Swatch Group Hikes U.S. Watch Prices In Response To Rising Swiss Franc and Tariffs

Swiss maker of Blancpain and other brands says price increases follow 'dramatic' change in exchange rates.

New: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms now in Polished Steel

Blancpain releases the Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42mm in polished stainless steel , with either a steel bracelet or rubber strap.

Introducing - The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 42mm Now in Polished Steel

One of the first purpose-built modern dive watches produced in the mid-1950s, Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms was a key player in the development of “skin diving” and the watch selected by several elite diving corps. Taken out of production in the 1980s, Swatch Group’s Marc A. Hayek resuscitated the Fifty Fathoms in 2003. In 2007, the […]

Blancpain Fills a Niche with Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42mm in Polishe

Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms, first introduced in 1953, is indisputably one of the most influential and iconic timepieces of the 20th century, basically laying out the blueprint for what we now recognize today as the modern divers’ watch. Also indisputable is the fact that the Fifty Fathoms is a watch that is anything but understated in its proportions - the Automatique at the core of the modern collection, relaunched in 2008, sports a massive 45mm case, and even the vintage-inspired and allegedly more modestly sized Bathyscaphe models, which joined the collection in 2013, hover around 43mm in their male-targeted iterations. In 2024, Blancpain responded to a market-wide trend toward smaller case sizes - albeit without compromising the bold character of its flagship sport-luxury model - by releasing a new version of the Fifty Fathoms Automatique in a middle-of-the-road 42mm version. Curiously, the first two models in this size were in rose gold and titanium; the inclusion of a steel model seemed to be a no-brainer that was conspicuous by its absence in that first wave of 42mm models. Today, however, Blancpain has finally delivered the Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42mm in stainless steel - adding it to the regular collection as well as giving the model a distinctive flair. The stainless steel case of the new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique, which measures precisely 42.3mm in diameter and 14.3mm thick, sports a gleaming, predominantly polished finish, distinguishing...

Introducing: A 42mm Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique In Steel

Just when the watch world is beginning to settle into the quiet post-Watches and Wonders pace, Blancpain shakes things up by introducing a version of its 42mm Fifty Fathoms in steel. Recently, I had the pleasure of spending some time with the 42mm Blancpain Fifty Fathoms in titanium. Now the brand has introduced a new […] Visit Introducing: A 42mm Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique In Steel to read the full article.

Introducing: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42mm - Now In Steel

Another Fifty Fathoms joins the lineup.

Blancpain now has a steel Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42mm in its permanent collection

Steel? Check. 42mm? Check. Regular production? Check.The post Blancpain now has a steel Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42mm in its permanent collection appeared first on Time+Tide Watches.

Can We Appreciate The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms As Just A Good Dive Watch?

Last year, I asked, “Can we appreciate the Rolex Submariner as just a great dive watch?” That question and article sparked a lot of debate. Today, I am asking a similar question of the Submariner’s spiritual competitor, the 42.3mm Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique. “Icon” is one of the most overused terms in the watch world. […] Visit Can We Appreciate The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms As Just A Good Dive Watch? to read the full article.

Blancpain Journeys “In The Lost Land” in New Film: an Interview Featuring George R.R. Martin, Paul W.S. Anderson, and Milla Jovovich

More now than ever it seems, watch companies fight their way onto the big screen through influencer programs or partnership deals with film production companies. Sometimes the partnership feels natural and complements the film, though the savvy enthusiast can still spot  a brand deal when it is played out in front of them. However, there are the rare occasions where a watch is chosen by the actor, the director, costume designer, or even the writer. Those instances are special as they better integrate into the final piece and add a bit of fun watch spotting for the enthusiast. I recently had the opportunity to join the Blancpain team in Santa Fe, NM for a special world premier screening of the new George R.R. Martin story directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, In The Lost Land. The film takes place in a dystopian reality and stars Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista with the Blancpain Carrousel Répétition Minutes Chronographe Flyback taking center stage with a prominent feature as an ancient and coveted relic. Watching the movie, the casual enthusiast may be left with questions such as why they chose this particular watch, how did Blancpain work their way on set, and was it a real watch at all? Well, we had the opportunity to sit down for a roundtable interview with George R.R. Martin, Paul W.S. Anderson, and Milla Jovovich to try and answer these questions ourselves.  Perhaps most interestingly, this partnership is one that reaches back quite a long time ago while the film was v...