Timepieces that will be passed down forever #04 Blancpain "Fifty Fathoms"

Blancpain's Fifty Fathoms watch was created in 1953 at the request of the French Navy. Its superiority was proven not only in the military but also in the scientific field, and it quickly established itself as a top-class professional tool. Now, in the 21st century, it has further evolved, expanding into the marine environment.

The ancestor of the modern diver's watch, which established a standard that will be passed down to future generations

　In 1943, French naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, together with engineer Émile Gagnon, developed the world's first self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, the Aqualung (officially known as SCUBA). Compared to the previous helmet-type diving apparatus with an exhaust valve, it was a groundbreaking invention that vastly expanded the scope of human activity underwater. Meanwhile, as the need for precision military operations became apparent during World War I, wristwatches with excellent accuracy, legibility, and durability became a requirement of the times, and diver's watches came to be recognized as important equipment on a par with pilot's watches.

　Underwater military operations began in earnest after World War II. In the early 1950s, Captain Robert "Bob" Maloubier and Lieutenant Claude Riffaud of the French Navy, who needed a watch for their country's elite diving unit, asked Blancpain to develop and manufacture one. This is how the Fifty Fathoms was born in 1953. The development of the watch owes much to the late Jean-Jacques Pfister, who served as Blancpain's CEO from 1950 to 1980. He oversaw the development of an advanced gasket system to improve water resistance.

　The first model delivered to the French Navy featured a double O-ring gasket. This model quickly gained acclaim and was adopted by the navies of the United States, West Germany (then), Israel, Denmark, and other countries from the 1950s to the 1970s. Its use extended beyond military use, from marine research to civilian divers. A famous example is Cousteau's appearance in the documentary film "The Silent World" (1956), co-directed with French filmmaker Louis Malle. Cousteau wore a Fifty Fathoms watch in this film, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1957. A "fathom" is a unit of depth used in English-speaking countries. One fathom is approximately 1.8542 meters, and 50 fathoms is approximately 92.71 meters. This represented the maximum depth that could be reached with an Aqualung in the 1950s.

　Due to the influence of the quartz revolution and other factors, the Fifty Fathoms went quiet for a while, but it was revived from 1997 to 2003 as part of the "Blancpain Trilogy," featuring the GMT and Air Command models. In 2003, a 50th-anniversary model was released to commemorate the original. It featured the automatic caliber 1151 with a power reserve of approximately 100 hours and a rotating bezel made of scratch-resistant sapphire crystal (the original model was Bakelite). Four years later, in 2007, a model featuring the new caliber 1315, an improved version of the 50th-anniversary model with a power reserve of approximately five days, was released. Furthermore, in 2023, marking the 70th anniversary of the watch's creation, a model with an automatic caliber 1315 and a case diameter of 42.30mm, close to the original, was released, proving that the watch has steadily evolved with the times.

　As part of its ocean research activities, Blancpain also supported the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project, which ran for five years from 2011. In 2013, the company also helped found the Gombessa Project, led by Laurent Ballesta, a French marine scientist and renowned underwater photographer, who successfully captured the first live coelacanth in its natural habitat off the coast of South Africa. These efforts would not have been possible without the support of Marc A. Hayek, who has served as Blancpain's President and CEO since 2002 and is himself a diver and underwater photographer.

　Originally created as a military device, the Fifty Fathoms continues to evolve in the 21st century as a new symbol of luxury divers' watches that celebrates coexistence with the ocean, the mother of humanity.