Sunday, December 25, 2011
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Flyback Chronograph Swiss Watch - Replicahause.net
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Blancpain Luxury Watches - Old Masters of Watchmaking
Blancpain is a luxury watch brand which still creates mechanical timepieces using traditional methods. Although under the ownership of the ever-expanding Swatch watch group, only ten thousand pieces leave this Swiss watch manufacture's workshop each year.
Blancpain has always had a reputation for crafting fine mechanical watches and complicated timepieces such as the Flyback Rattrapante, the Villeret and the Fifty Fathoms.
Jehan-Jacques Blancpain who began producing pocket watches in 1735 from his own home in Villeret, Switzerland was one of the forerunners in the world of the Swiss luxury watch industry.
The Blancpain family were to remain in charge of production for seven generations, until 1932. During this time the vision of the original founder, devotion to perfection and the continued refinement of the complication movement were reinforced.
On the death of the last member of the Blancpain family to own the company, the Blancpain brand was taken over by family friends Betty Fiechter and Andre Leal. They picked up production under the new title "Rayville Ltd. Successors to Blancpain".
The Fifty Fathoms automatic divers watch became a signature piece under the Rayville-Blancpain name. This wrist watch gained popularity with the endorsement of the underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau in the movie "The World Of Silence" in 1955 and this helped to drive the business forward.
Although Rayville-Blancpain was acquired by the Omega watch company in 1969 this also coincided with a general downturn in the industry due to the introduction of the quartz watch movement. Blancpain promised never to create a quartz movement and in the following years the company almost disappeared completely.
The saviours of the Blancpain brand were Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet who acquired the company from Omega and in 1983 released a new timepiece which featured day, date, month and moon phase complications.
To commemorate the year of its founding Blancpain released a Grande Complication. This complex and innovative timepiece featured six masterpiece complications. Only thirty pieces were released making it highly collectable.
In 1992 the company again changed hands this time to be taken over by Nicolas Hayek, owner of the Swatch group. Today Blancpain luxury watches, one of the old masters of the watchmaking world, continue to command respect from discerning collectors. Offering a wide variation of complications in classic and contemporary designs, Blancpain watches represent the choice of the sophisticated watch collector.
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and 500 Fathoms Diving Watches - Innovative, Distinctive and Ultra-Cool
When Blancpain, manufactures of luxury Swiss watches first created the Fifty Fathoms diving watch during the 1950's it was not initially meant for the commercial sector of their business. However when Blancpain came into contact with Captain Robert Maloubier and Lieutenant Claude Riffaud of the French Navy the idea of such a watch became a reality. These elite French Navy divers "Les Nageurs de Combat" required a sturdy, resistant, reliable and highly legible divers wristwatch and rising to the challenge the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms divers watch did not disappoint.
With its name inspired by its water resistance - 50 fathoms (or 91.45 metres to those not of a nautical preference), the Fifty Fathoms with its bold yet functional epoxy bezel and its super-luminous Arabic numerals and markers became a signature piece of the Blancpain collection. The publicity received when Jacques Cousteau and fellow divers wore the piece in the Palme d'Or winning movie, Le Monde du Silence in 1956 made this outstanding piece into an iconic men's diving watch.
Over half a century has passed since the Fifty Fathoms was unveiled and finally it has a "big sister" in the form of the 500 Fathoms. This brand new release from Blancpain has water-resistance to 1000 metres. It features a brushed titanium case measuring an impressive 48mm in diameter, which contrasts boldly with the new distinctive "sun-ray" dial into which are hollowed large phosphorescent Arabic numerals. Further legibility is ensured due to luminescent coating of the hour-markers, hands and bezel markings. The 500 Fathoms is powered by a self-winding Calibre 1315 movement and unusually for a divers watch this along with its boat propeller-shaped oscillating weight is revealed through a specially engineered tough sapphire crystal case back.
The 500 Fathoms is a truly contemporary watch, intelligently designed with many innovative safety features, yet in keeping with the spirit of the Fifty Fathoms the Blancpain brand have created another modern divers watch with an exceptionally strong personality. This could possibly be the ultimate men's diving watch.