The Bathyscaphe That Changed the Dive Watch Game
A couple of years ago, the watch world feted Blancpain as it basked in the warm glow of the 70th anniversary of the world’s first dive watch, the Fifty Fathoms. Without question, the dive watch is one of the most popular types of watches worldwide, especially if you only consider the mechanical variety. Quite apart from diving, whether it be for sport, science, exploration or recreation, the tool watch that supports the diver has evolved into a symbol of precision and robustness. The contemporary executive is simply all at sea without a dive watch to accompany him or her throughout the day, even if that day is spent taking meetings and banging out emails.
The story is somewhat incomplete without a bit of space for the Bathyscaphe model, which was the diver Blancpain made for the public. For those who care about names and such, this is why we do not just say Bathyscaphe instead of Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe – the model was made as a version of the storied Fifty Fathoms. Thus, as usual, the journey we are about to undertake requires some history, specifically relating to the Bathyscaphe but also to the complication on display on the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Phases de Lune.
There are two parts to this but we present them together because it all explains why complications are important in a dive watch, especially at Blancpain. So, as usual, if specifications and the like about the cover watch in particular are what floats your boat, then turn to the Cover Watch story in this issue.
CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY
While Blancpain returned the Fifty Fathoms to the regular collection in 2003, it would take another 10 years before the little brother also rejoined. This was actually the first major broadening of the collection since that relaunch, and since the Fifty Fathoms became a full collection again in 2007.
In the 1950s, the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe made its debut, emerging roughly three years after the iconic Fifty Fathoms model was publicly introduced at the Basel trade fair. True to its dive watch heritage, the original Bathyscaphe was designed with superior water resistance, exceptional legibility, and a rotating bezel engineered for precise dive timing.
The approach was twofold: one version was crafted in a smaller size ideal for everyday wear – especially significant in an era when watches were generally more modest in dimensions – and another, even more compact model, was tailored specifically for women’s wrists. This dual-concept strategy has endured; the 2013 relaunch of the Bathyscaphe carries forward the same philosophy of versatility and user-focused design.
Under the guidance of Blancpain CEO Marc A. Hayek, the Bathyscaphe line has expanded to offer a diverse range of sizes to suit every taste. This evolution builds upon the groundwork laid by Jean-Jacques Fiechter during his tenure as CEO, when the models were first introduced with a simple date display and later enhanced with both day and date functions. Hayek pushed these innovations even further.
Today’s Bathyscaphe collection not only includes models with the standard date or day-date displays common to the Fifty Fathoms family, but it also features more sophisticated complications such as complete calendar moon phases, annual calendars, and even a flyback chronograph.
The rich history of the 1950s to the 1970s continues to serve as a wellspring of inspiration for the modern Bathyscaphe variations. For example, the “No Radiations” models proudly bears a legend on the dial that assures civilians of the absence of radioactive compounds – materials that were, at times, used by militaries for luminous indexes and hands. Similarly, the MIL-PSEC models pay homage to US Navy watches by incorporating a moisture indicator directly onto the dial. Other iterations include the Aqualung series, which nods to the original Fifty Fathoms timepieces sold alongside diving equipment in French Aqualung dive shops, and the Barakuda models, which draw inspiration from watches marketed by the German diving equipment supplier Barakuda. The Day-Date 70s variant harks back to a 1970s model featuring day and date complications, while the Nageurs du Combat series honors the longstanding relationship between Blancpain and the French Combat Diving Corps.
Over the past two decades, the evolution of the Bathyscaphe has also been marked by a broad exploration of case materials. While the early models were exclusively crafted in stainless steel, recent offerings now feature an impressive array of options, including various precious metals, titanium, and even ceramic. This shift in material choice not only reinforces Blancpain’s dedication to functional design but also elevates the aesthetic appeal of the Bathyscaphe, ensuring that each timepiece meets the demanding technical requirements of diving while catering to a wide range of stylistic preferences.
As for the complications bit of the story and the watch, this is something that took off in the most unexpected of moments, in the late 1970s, at the height of the onslaught of cheap and precise quartz watches. We get into Blancpain’s resolve in this matter later on but for this bit, we want to congratulate the brand for recognizing that people might be interested in the charm and beauty of complex handmade watches. The very first of these complicated watches was a model with displays for the date, day of the week, month and moon phase, all calculated and derived purely mechanically. No transistors were welcome.
This 1980s watch started the entire Swiss watch industry down the path towards embracing mechanical charm, and ignited in the general public a passion for clockwork. The latter is still growing. Interestingly, the configuration of that initial Blancpain full calendar with moon phase displays became a template of sorts, being apparent throughout the Blancpain range today, including here with this Bathyscaphe model.
IT CAME FROM BENEATH
In 2023, Blancpain celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms collection, to go back to the opening paragraph. And to celebrate, the brand released a slew of fantastic limited-edition models. As is customary, each time a media outlet decided to write about one of these watches, they dug deeper into Blancpain’s history, re-telling the origin story of what many consider the world’s first modern dive watch, the Fifty Fathoms. For the sake of brevity, we will not go in-depth into this story once again; see the aforementioned cover story in 2023 for more, or the same story online on Luxuo.com. In a nutshell, the impetus for the first Fifty Fathoms came when Fiechter, himself a diving enthusiast, had a near-fatal accident whilst diving. He decided then to devote the company’s resources to creating a more reliable tool for divers so they never had to experience what he had. Thus, the Fifty Fathoms was born.
In 1953, around the time that this was happening, it is worth noting that diving was still considered an extreme sport, something that only serious enthusiasts would consider. This is very much the opposite today where one can become a certified PADI Open Water diver in as short a time as three days. The Fifty Fathoms of the 1950s was designed with its context in mind and was intended to be sold only in diving shops as an essential element of a diver’s kit or issued to military personnel. Therefore, the watches did not quite take into consideration questions like how well they sat on the wrist or did the size fit the trend of watch wearers of that generation. No, it was a dedicated tool, made to serve its ultimate function as a time instrument for use underwater. The term Fifty Fathoms was derived from the measurement of distance. With a fathom measuring 6 feet, 50 fathoms indicate 300 feet which is roughly 100 meters. Even today, the ISO 6425 standard that governs the horology industry’s dive watches also stipulates that if it were to be called a dive watch (or diver’s watch or diving watch; there are a few acceptable terms) it must have a water-resistance of 100m at minimum.
Thus, because the Fifty Fathoms was designed as a tool, the initial watches were made with a 41mm diameter. Today this size may seem closer to a midsize case, especially for a dive watch but considering that most men’s watches at that time measured 32 to 34mm, 41mm was shockingly huge to the general public. After the debut of the Fifty Fathoms, Fiechter had the idea to take what made that specialized watch successful and transform it into something smaller to suit the tastes of the general public. And thus, the Bathyscaphe was born.
It is a little ironic that what was essentially a watch that could be used both as an everyday timepiece and as a casual dive watch would be named after a vessel that would eventually be the first vessel to reach Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth. It is known that Fiechter was an acquaintance of the man who designed the Bathyscaphe submersible, the Swiss scientist, Auguste Piccard, through his affiliation with diving- related events. Perhaps this is why he named the collection Bathyscaphe, after a friend. Another theory to consider, and this is neither confirmed nor denied by Blancpain, is that perhaps at the time, the Bathyscaphe submersible was built with cutting-edge technology, a representation of modernity which Fiechter likened to Blancpain’s new Bathyscaphe collection branching out from the Fifty Fathoms.
As mentioned, the Blancpain Bathyscaphe debuted with a smaller case size, and in subsequent years since the Blancpain Bathyscaphe launched, got a fair bit more complicated too, although it always kept its identity as a dive watch. Hayek insisted on this – whatever complication appeared in the Bathyscaphe collection, it could not compromise the watch’s utility as a diving instrument. Thus, the unidirectional bezel is always present and the water-resistance is never compromised.
SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
So, why this watch at this time for our cover? Well, the Bathyscaphe has long been a favourite in these parts and Blancpain is really one of the few brands out there doing the crazy work of packing complications into dive watches. Besides this, the collection is also what we would call underrated and perhaps even criminally underappreciated; it has been on our dark horse list before, although we cover it ceaselessly. Blancpain also debuted the watches in this story last year, in full ceramic packages; the watches existed before, with ceramic cases too, but not with matching bracelets. Now, if you have not been following watchmaking religiously, the ceramics you are often acquainted with are almost all ornate and beautiful or simply useful, in the case of most plates and dishes; however, they are also incredibly fragile, which you will know all too well. This simply will not do for an instrument designed to accompany its wearer as he or she goes about their day, or in the case of the Bathyscaphe as they venture to depths unknown.
The ceramics used in watchmaking retain all of their beauty and ornateness, if you will, but shed most notions of fragility; ceramic is still a hard material that breaks or chips rather than bends or dents. Within the industry, the ceramic material is prized for its durability, lightness, hypoallergenic properties and above all, its hardness which makes it impervious to all but the most forceful attempts at scratching its surface. There is a test in the industry known as the Vickers hardness test which pushes a diamond tip into a material and calculates various parameters to determine hardness. Just as a comparison, gold which is known to be one of softest watchmaking materials, comes in at about 100 Vickers. Traditional stainless steel has a hardness of around 250 Vickers. Blancpain’s favourite Grade 23 titanium is harder at 300 Vickers. But the type of ceramic Blancpain uses for its watchmaking, zirconium dioxide, sits at the pinnacle of hardness with a whopping 1,200 Vickers.
For all its desirable properties, the biggest barrier for watchmakers to use this coveted material is the complexity of its manufacturing process. Imagine, if you will, that this material that boasts such incredible hardness starts off as a fine powder. The powder is mixed with high-tech pigmentation and binders before being dried in a spray drying atomization process. Then this powder has to be either pressed or injection molded, both at incredibly high pressures into the desired shape.
Probably the hardest part about ceramic manufacturing comes from the sintering process. To obtain the hardness level of 1,200 Vickers, the sintering process puts the raw material into an oven and bakes them at high temperatures. Although the explanation seems simple, the actual process is anything but. It requires careful management of the temperatures, the length of the sintering process, the rate at which the temperature increases and even how the finished materials cool. Any miscalculation in these parameters and the finished product may not have the intended effect or even worse, be rendered unusable. And if you consider the tight tolerances needed in watchmaking and the shrinking that occurs during sintering, this alone is enough to create a hurdle that many watch manufacturers are unable to cross.
It is also because of this sintering process that only certain colours can be created for ceramics. The ratio of pigments and the exact recipe needed to achieve the intended colour is one thing but imagine then having to put this whole thing through a high- temperature sintering process, which causes many of the pigments to change colour. For example, the pigment for black ceramic is usually grey or tan before heating. As of now, Blancpain has managed to perfect the recipe for three colours including black, blue and green. There is also a special grey plasma colour that resembles stainless steel. This unique version of ceramic requires an additional heating process at high plasma heat levels transforming the zirconium oxide into zirconium carbide.
As complex as the above steps are, here things get even more ridiculous. Remember we were mentioning just how incredibly hard ceramic is as a material? Well, once the case nears the final shape, it now has to be machined to get the precise shape, along with the interior elements that house the bezel, movement and caseback. And because the material is so hard, many of the tools required to cut and grind the case have to come with diamond tips, one of the few commercial materials left that is harder than the ceramic case.
This means that even polishing the case of the Bathyscaphe has to be met with the same fervour. A simple satin finish, normally quite easily done on stainless steel watches now requires many hours of highly skilled handwork. To demonstrate the finesse that Blancpain’s craftspeople have, they even managed to polish the areas between the lugs where no one ever looks. Just as an indication of its complexity, Blancpain estimates more than 50 facets on the case, where each needs to be addressed by the finishing craftspeople, one by one, facet by facet, often several times per facet.
Fifty facets may seem like a crazy amount to hand-finish but consider that just last year, Blancpain introduced a full ceramic bracelet. These bracelets are more complex than most traditional bracelet constructions with multiple links, termed “maillons” with connectors on either side. All these components are made in ceramic which means each of these small parts has been meticulously pressure injected, sintered and finally finished by hand. Here with so many moving parts, the tolerances are even tighter because if the fit of the elements is too loose, the bracelet will be sloppy and if they are too tight there is a risk of it binding. Just to produce the bracelet alone, Blancpain has filed for two separate patents on the process and even the metal pin that binds the links, has a patent for its cam-like shape.
BATHYSCAPHE OF TODAY
Finally, it is only after setting the scene for the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Phases de Lune that we can properly understand what makes this watch worth its asking price. Of course, a good chunk of this comes from the complexity of manufacturing the ceramic bracelet, which is basically what is new here. There is a cute anecdote that Jeffrey Kingston wrote in the 24th issue of Blancpain’s annual Lettres du Brassus magazine where he mentioned having accidentally left his ceramic Bathyscaphe in a room with a big 40kg German Shepard dog. When he returned sometime later, the sailcloth strap was torn to shreds while the watch was still pristine, without even a hint of a scratch or blemish, even under the scrutiny of a watchmaker’s loupe. As a quick aside, most of the historical information in this story was sourced from Kingston’s amazing articles in Lettres du Brassus.
Of course, you would want a sturdy and reliable material such as ceramic protecting the complex Calibre 6654.P movement that beats within the Bathyscaphe. Why should you not want the same level of protection for the strap? It is the very thing that defines a wristwatch and without a nice strap, you just have a cool desk accoutrement or slightly ridiculous pocket watch. As we have written extensively about, our weather does not take kindly to leather straps so bracelets are objectively better. Is the ceramic version for you? Do yourself a favour and head down to the boutique and try the options on.
“Staying true to the Bathyscaphe’s legacy as a dive watch meant for the casual everyday wearer, the collection also houses other complications originally not meant for dive watches like the flyback chronograph”
Staying true to the Bathyscaphe’s legacy as a dive watch meant for the casual everyday wearer, the collection also houses other complications originally not meant for dive watches like the flyback chronograph. This complication that allows a quick resetting of the chronograph hand without having to stop the measurement of elapsed time was developed for the aviation industry to measure fuel consumption or the time taken to travel between waypoints. The flyback chronograph finds its way onto the Bathyscaphe collection via the Calibre F385 movement which offers a column wheel system and a vertical clutch for chronograph aficionados. Moreover, the beat rate for this movement is also increased to a higher 5Hz so that the chronographs can be accurate to 1/10th of a second. 5Hz means the regulating organ of the watch is oscillating at 36,000 beats per hour translating to 10 beats per second. Thus with the right scale, the wearer will be able to track the precision of the timekeeper up to 1/10th of a second. Due to its complexity, the watch is priced similarly to the complete calendar mentioned above.
Finally, for the base Bathyscaphe in ceramic, the model is available with a date indication between the 4 and 5 o’clock positions. Interestingly the watch is powered by Blancpain’s Calibre 1315 movement which, like all of Blancpain’s movements, was designed, developed, produced, assembled and adjusted in- house. Additionally, it offers a staggering five days of power reserve and this is achieved through the use of three series coupled barrels. The watch is still housed in the same 43.6mm case even with its lack of complication, which is the same size as the flyback chronograph and complete calendar versions. One reason for this could be due to the complexity of manufacturing these cases. It is more cost-effective for Blancpain to make all three variants the same size so they do not have to recalibrate the machines for each different reference of the ceramic Bathyscaphes.
Although the size of these Bathyscape ceramic watches is considered quite large at 43.6mm, it is worth noting that in stainless steel, the Bathyscaphe still comes in a variety of sizes, even scaling down as small as 38mm to fit practically every wrist size and taste preference. Today, the Bathyscaphe can also be found in a variety of colours and case materials including this ceramic version, 18K gold and grade 23 titanium. The variance in material, colours and complication continues to propagate the legend of the Bathyscaphe as the more casual cousin of the Fifty Fathoms and this story does not look like it will be changing anytime soon.
PHOTOGRAPHY by CHING@GREENPLASTICSOLDIERS
STYLING by GREGORY WOO
This story was first seen on WOW #76 Spring 2025 Issue
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The post The Bathyscaphe That Changed the Dive Watch Game appeared first on LUXUO.
