Back in 2013, Blancpain resurrected the Bathyscaphe diver as a part of the Fifty Fathoms collection. It had a lot of vintage styling, rock-solid construction, and a nice movement inside too. There was a lot to love and I even put one through its paces in A Week On The Wrist, loving my time with it. If I had one complaint though, it was the watch’s size. At 43mm, it was substantially bigger than the vintage divers that inspired it and a little chunky for me personally. Well, now that problem is solved. Blancpain is taking the same general Bathyscaphe design and introducing it in a smaller 38mm case size.
This actually isn’t the first 38mm Bathyscaphe. Earlier this year, Revolution magazine introduced a limited edition 38mm Bathyscaphe with a different dial as a tribute to the 1953 original. This is however the first 38mm Bathyscaphe being added to Blancpain’s core collection. Not only is the case smaller in diameter at 38mm instead of 43mm, it’s also much thinner, coming in at 10.77mm instead of 13.4mm. It’s worth noting that this isn’t an entirely new case for Blancpain – it’s been used in the Fifty Fathoms collection before, but only for pieces marketed to women.
To start, this new size is being presented in just the blue colorway, with a blue sunburst dial and a blue ceramic bezel with Liquidmetal numerals and markers in it. You’ve got the same pip-shaped hour markers with wedge-shaped markers at three, six, nine, and 12. The wide rectangular hands and the date at 4:30 also remain unchanged. The movement powering the watch is the caliber 1150, which is an automatic movement with a 100-hour power reserve. You can see it through the large sapphire window set into the screw-down caseback.
Blancpain has not yet announced pricing for the new 38mm Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, but we’ll update you as soon as information becomes available. To be clear, the 38mm Bathyscaphe is not replacing the 43mm version – it’s an addition to the collection, not a revision of the line.
For more, visit Blancpain online.
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