Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3: The Diver’s Watch

Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3 is the third and final tribute to the diver’s watch that came to define a genre. 

The story behind Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms, widely regarded as the first diver’s wristwatch, whose design remains the basic blueprint for the genre today, is well known. It was the early 1950s, when recreational diving was still in its infancy, that Blancpain’s then-CEO, Jean-Jacques Fiechter – already passionate about the sport – ran out of air while underwater off the French coast at Cannes. Fortunately he survived the experience, which led him to realise that divers needed a reliable instrument that could help them keep track of their air supply. It was thus that the unidirectional revolving bezel, marked in increments up to 60 minutes, was born – and it not only featured on Blancpain’s first Fifty Fathoms, which made its debut in 1953, but also remains a defining element of all divers’ watches today. 

The rotating bezel wasn’t the only dive-watch characteristic established by the Fifty Fathoms. Its ability to withstand pressure up to 10 bar and thus remain watertight is still a global minimum standard for dive timepieces, though of course present-day Fifty Fathoms are capable of withstanding pressures of three times that. It was resistant to magnetism and self-winding too, the latter involving less wear and tear on the watch’s crown, which in any case was fitted with a double watertight seal, and its dark dial featured large and contrasting luminous hour markers, easily visible underwater. No wonder, then, that such a practical precision instrument soon came to the attention of combat dive units in armed forces around the world, including those of France, Germany, the US and Norway, which adopted them for their own personnel. 

A later safety feature developed for the Fifty Fathoms was a moisture indicator, confirming the absence of any damage perhaps incurred in previous use. This was adopted on military-specification (MIL-SPEC) Fifty Fathoms watches supplied to the US Navy from 1957. It’s this rare timepiece, which today is highly sought-after by collectors, that inspires the third Blancpain released this year in celebration of the dive watch’s seventh decade, the Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3, which has just been released in a 555-piece limited edition. 

Like the two commemorative Acts already released this year, the Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3 is an extra-special diver’s watch. Recalling the MIL-SPEC of the mid-1950s, its dial features a vintage- style moisture indicator, though this time it’s in Super-LumiNova, as are the hour markers and the five-minute increments marked on the diving scale’s black ceramic insert. But what really sets the Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3 apart is the fact that its 41.3mm-diameter case is fashioned from 9K Bronze Gold, an alloy containing 37.5 percent gold and 50 percent copper, as well as silver, palladium and gallium. In addition to its unique pinkish hue, the presence of gold in the alloy means that, unlike other bronzes, the case can safely be worn against the skin and won’t patinate. Moreover, the watch is water-resistant to 30 bar, a depth far deeper than that reached by even the most serious technical divers.

A watch case so unique clearly demands a mechanism of equal quality, and the Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3’s 1154.P2 movement is easily up to the occasion. Thanks to twin barrels, it provides an exemplary 100 hours of power, while its 1,000-gauss resistance to magnetism is achieved not only by the provision of a silicon balance-spring but also special alloys that are employed for the escapement. And that means – unlike the early MIL-SPEC Fifty Fathoms, whose movement was encased in a soft iron cage – the Act 3’s power unit can be admired through a caseback crystal, which among other things reveals the snailing detail on the rotor and vintage-inspired text in gold. In a nod to sustainability and the preservation of the oceans, the Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3 is attached to a two-tone NATO-style fabric strap in the colours of the original timepiece, which is fashioned from recovered fishing nets. As for presentation, the watch comes in a box that resembles an underwater camera housing dating from the same period as the original Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. It could hardly be a more appropriate way of commemorating the timepiece that truly sparked a revolution in watch design.