History of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

Just about every manufacture worth its salt has at least one example in their portfolio, with as many different interpretations on the form as there are brands themselves. However, unlike with most other classes of wristwatch, there are definite rules put in place for what a timepiece must have in order to officially wear a ‘Diver’s’ mark.

These regulations, ISO 6425 (issued by the International Standard for Organization, an independent, non-governmental body which sets criteria for over 21,000 categories, based—surprise, surprise—in Geneva) were first published in 1982. But much of what the standards specify can trace their roots back to the 1950s and the piece commonly regarded as the first modern, fully-fledged dive watch; the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms.

The groundings for the Fifty Fathoms were really established during WWII. That had been the first conflict involving any kind of underwater sabotage missions, carried out by so-called Frogmen; amphibious units engaged in the demolition of vital naval targets.

By the 1950s, the equipment used by the commandos had started to filter through to the new sport of Scuba diving, and in particular Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s 1943 invention of the Aqua-Lung, the first self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.

But as recreational diving started to explode in popularity, the shortcomings of the military gear was becoming all too obvious, with the need for a reliable timing device seen as one of the most urgent requirements. No watch of the era was deemed able to withstand the pressures placed on it by diving to great depth for extended periods.

Fortunately, the French Ministry of Defence had come to the same conclusion. It was in the process of founding a new covert underwater unit named the Nageuers de Combat—or, combat swimmers. It would be headed up by two WWII veteran Frogmen, Captain Robert ‘Bob’ Maloubier and his second-in-command, Lieutenant Claude Jean Riffaud. The two men, as well as handpicking their squad, were also responsible for selecting equipment and had already had to submit their own designs for new styles of masks and fins, with there being nothing available commercially which met their needs.

A suitable watch was next on the list. After scouring the market and deciding everything came up short, Maloubier and Riffaud simply sat down with a pencil, ruler and sheet of paper and, over the course of two hours, listed their requirements and sketched a watch of their own. It should have, they decided, a high contrast black dial with large white hands and hour markers to make it easily legible in the murkiest conditions. The movement should be automatic so that the winding crown, the weakest spot in any watch design, would have to be used as infrequently as possible. The case should obviously be extremely water resistant and it would need a rotatable bezel engraved with minute markings as a way to measure elapsed time.Those criteria form the basis for ISO 6425 today.

But if the men thought that was the hard part out of the way, they were about to be disappointed. Maloubier put his design out to tender amongst dozens of Switzerland’s leading manufactures, who all came back with a resounding ‘non’.

Eventually, they arrived at the door of a small, independent atelier nestled in the Jura mountains which, nonetheless, having been founded in 1735, held the record as the oldest surviving watchmaker in existence.

Blancpain at that time was led by Jean-Jacques Fiechter, the first CEO in two centuries not to be a direct descendant of the Blancpain family. He was also, in a happy coincidence, an avid Scuba diver, a member of the Club Alpin Sous-Marin in the south of France, and aware of the demand for an accurate timing device. On one excursion he had been forced into an emergency assent having run out of air due to losing track of time. He had been toying with the idea of making his own dive watch when the Frenchmen came knocking.

It was Fiechter who had the idea for a locking, unidirectional bezel, a simple yet highly effective safeguard against overestimating remaining air supply. He also devised a multipiece, screw down case back for optimum water resistance and a new double O-ring system for the winding crown—with the patent for a screw-in crown held by Rolex.

The prototype watches were sent out for field testing with the French Navy, who reported it a success on all fronts. Soon after they became standard issue. As with all of the Navy’s equipment, however, the MOD purchased the Fifty Fathoms through a single supplier, La Spirotechnique, headed up by Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself, along with the co-creator of the Aqua-Lung, Emile Gagnan. Cousteau was so enamoured by the watch he wore one during filming of his Oscar and Palme d’Or-winning underwater documentary, Le Monde de Silence (The Silent World) in 1956.

The result was a marketing bonanza, meaning that as well as spreading to the military forces of the U.S., Germany, Hungary, Israel and Pakistan among others, the Fifty Fathoms also attracted a healthy civilian audience as well.

2023 sees the Fifty Fathoms turn 70, alongside another diving legend originally introduced just a few months after it, Rolex’s Submariner.

But while it can’t claim quite the overriding appeal of the Sub, which could be said about almost every other watch in existence, Blancpain’s most famous creation is in rude health nowadays.

The Fifty Fathoms is celebrating its birthday in style, with a host of new watches coming to the fore. The first, a 42mm model powered by Blancpain’s own Calibre 1315 and known as the Act 1, comprises a limited edition of 210 pieces, split into three series of 70. Each group is reserved for a particular part of the world, taking in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

The Act 2 Tech Gombessa is a more extreme version designed for a more extreme audience. A huge 47mm model, its bezel is marked with a three-hour scale as opposed to the more usual 60-minutes, and it is equipped with a patented extra hand which completes a full turn in three hours as well, in order to keep track of the extended immersion times of saturation and technical divers.

The Act 2 retails at £24,700, with the smaller Act 1 coming in at around £15,000.