Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Abbys Blue

Quick specs Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Abbys Blue Price: CHF 8’900 | approx. € 9.900 | approx. £ 8,700 | approx. $ 11,090 Size: 38 mm Reference: 5100-1140-O52A

Finally, a vintage inspired watch with some real vintage sizing. Those new ‘retro’ watches have some great styling, but most of the time they are much too big. Not this Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Abbys Blue.

Blancpain already introduced a new Bathycscape in 2013 with a great style, but… a 43-millimeter case. This time around they are back with a more modest but much better 38 millimeters for the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe.

The aesthetics are completely in line with its 1950s ancestor; just look at the sharply drawn edges of the case, the hands and the luminescent dot on the unidirectional bezel with ceramic insert. Loyal to the original Bathyscaphe version, the luminescent dot on the bezel serves as an index for divers, enabling accurate alignment with the minutes hand. Thereby defining the start of a given dive time. During the dive, the seconds hand serves as an operating indicator.

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Abbys Blue is smaller than its brothers

As you can imagine with a Blancpain diver, it’s much more than just good looks. The water-resistant watch stays trustworthy up to 300 meters and the caliber 1150 has a lengthy power-reserve of about 100 hours. The silicon balance spring has a lower density. Perhaps not that interesting, but when you realize it reduces weight, makes it impervious to magnetic fields and increases shock resistance, you understand why this is a good thing.

A good and versatile diver. You can wear it with almost anything due to its styling and you get some serious horological pedigree. And if you want a bigger Fifty Fathoms, take a look at his 40.3-millemeter Blancpain Tribute to Fifty Fathoms MIL-SPEC. In that article we also explain the name of the watch. And if you want an even bigger one, check the 43.6-millimeter Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II.