Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 1

Nowadays, a Fifty Fathoms would be regarded as a sporty dress watch. However, originally it was a military time piece. Blancpain developed its first Fifty Fathoms dive watch in 1953, at a request from the newly created French Combat Swimmers unit commanders.

The Fifty Fathoms was produced until the 1980s, then reintroduced in 2003 as a luxury timepiece by the future Swatch Group. Since then, numerous iterations would follow.

The latest has been released to celebrate its 70th Anniversary, with the company delivering a series of limited editions. Act 1 is the first one.

This unit has a 42.3mm polished stainless steel case with the classic lumed 50ftm bezel insert. Both, the bezel and the crystal are built in doomed sapphire.

They black dial also follows the classic 50ftm design but it comes with date window between 4 and 5 o’clock, without disturbing the symmetry of the heavy lumed markers.

A sapphire window on the case back allows to enjoy the view of the gorgeously engraved Blancpain caliber 1315 automatic movement.

The original Fifty Fathoms was water resistant to 50ftm (91 meters). The Act1 can be sunk up to 300m. And to reassert its military origins, the watch comes with a NATO YTT+ web strap.