Blancpain staked their claim in the dive watch space by quite literally creating it when they released the Fifty Fathoms in 1953. It was the first purpose-built, professional dive watch, and it beat the iconic Rolex Submariner to market by a year. Since its release almost 70 years ago, the Fifty Fathoms has been a mainstay in the watch space, and now the line looks to continue its storied excellence with the release of the first Fifty Fathoms Bathyscape in titanium.
The Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Titanium features a case made from Grade 23 titanium, an extremely pure and high-end titanium alloy that is hardly ever used in the watch industry as it requires substantial machining work that is both challenging and costly. The Bathyscaphe’s case measures 43mm in diameter and is water-resistant to 300m. Moreover, the Bathyscaphe features a unidirectional, satin-finished titanium bezel with a ceramic insert and a Liquidmetal scale. The watch sports a sleek and modern anthracite dial with a hand-crafted vertical satin finish that contrasts nicely with the lumed hands and indices, while Blancpain’s Caliber 1315 automatic movement beats away inside. This Bathyscape is available on either a NATO, an anthracite sailcloth strap, or a satin-finished three-link bracelet that is also remarkably crafted from Grade 23 titanium.
After the better part of a century of dive watchmaking excellence, Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Titanium lives up to its historic name in beauty, function, and quality. The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Titanium replica watch is now available for $210
Properly rare and unusual tool watches are, well, rare, but the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe makes the grade. The key point about this dive watch is that it is offered in full grade 23 titanium for the first time, with a matching titanium bracelet. Yes, grade 23, which made us do a double-take because that is a truly unusual material in watchmaking. Material properties aside, being that the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe is a dive watch, what you will want to concern yourself with is availability. As far as we can tell, this model is running under the radar but that will surely change.
Before that though, there are some important points to note about the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, and how it differs from the standard Fifty Fathoms. Astute collectors will of course know that the Fifty Fathoms Automatique and Grande Date are both offered in titanium, after all. The most salient point is the size of the look and feel of the Bathyscaphe models, which differ strongly from the standard Fifty Fathoms.