New functionalityThe brandnew Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel

Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms heritage dates from 1953, when it debuted as the world’s first modern diving watch fulfilling the needs of professional divers in underwater conditions. Its set of features and signature design have defined the dive watch genre for the entire industry ever since.

The Bathyscaphe first joined the Fifty Fathoms collection in 1956 as a civilian version whose size would be adapted to daily wear. That formula continues today with Blancpain’s modern Bathyscaphe models offering a robust movement, and a unidirectional rotating bezel with a ceramic insert.

This year’s Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel brings new functionality to the sport collection, thus enhancing its use as a daily wear timepiece. This is the first time that a Bathyscaphe model features indications for the day of the week, date, and month shown in windows and arranged in the logical order that most people would use in common parlance. This annual calendar approaches the convenience of the perpetual variety, as it fully accounts for all the irregularities in the length of months, except for February. The calendar thus requires adjustment only once per year at the end of that month.

Powering the Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel is a new caliber, the 6054.P, based upon Blancpain’s in-house twin-barrel 1150 movement, which has been modified with extended bridges creating a wider opening on the caliber.

The black ceramic unidirectional rotating bezel of the new Bathyscaphe with its Liquidmetal® markings dramatically accents the meteor gray dial. The 43mm satin-finished steel case can be fitted with a sail-canvas or NATO strap, as well as a metal bracelet.