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2020-07-14
BLANCPAIN FF Automatique & FF Grande Date TITANIUM BRACELET
The Fifty Fathoms collection has been joined by three new references: Ref. 5015-12B30-98B & 5015-12B40-98B and Ref. 5050-12B30-98B.
The iconic Fifty Fathoms Automatique and Fifty Fathoms Grande Date are now available with a Titanium bracelet.
2020 sees Blancpain equipping three versions of their iconic Fifty Fathoms with a brand new high-tech Titanium bracelet with its roots firmly planted in the past.
https://oceanictime.blogspot.com/2020/07/blancpain-ff-automatique-ff-grande-date.html
Blancpain managed to reacquire said US Navy timepiece at an auction in 2015: its case was constructed from nickel silver, a non-magnetic copper, zinc and nickel alloy while its case-back made use of Titanium allowing for increased resistance to pressure.
At that time, Titanium had only really been adopted by the aerospace industry so was rarely seen in watchmaking. This means that Blancpain were likely the first Manufacture to use Titanium in watchmaking.
The icon of Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms collection appears in a new titanium version
Upon its release in 1953, Fifty Fathoms, the first modern diver's watch, immediately appealed to professional divers and soon thereafter to their civilian counterparts. It has since become the archetypal watch in this genre. As relevant as ever six decades on, its main original technical and aesthetic characteristics, revisited and complemented by a date in the 2000s, are now teamed with a titanium case.
When launched in the 1950s, the first Fifty Fathoms quickly stood out thanks to its practical features, entirely designed for professional diving. Among the decisive criteria that contributed to its renown were broad luminescent hour-markers and hands contrasting with a black dial and unidirectional rotating bezel, as well as a steel case with a soft iron inner cage intended to protect the movement from magnetic fields.
This watchmaking legend was updated and enhanced in 2007 with a date placed between 4 and 5 o'clock, while preserving its immediately recognizable DNA. Today, Blancpain is offering a new version of this Fifty Fathoms Automatique model which combines its ebony-black color with a satin-brushed titanium case.
