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.
