{"product_id":"blancpain-fifty-fathoms-automatique-as08354","title":"Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAlongside the Rolex Submariner and DOXA Sub 300 Series, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is without question one of the most important dive watch designs in history, and is often credited with being \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethe\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e first purpose-built timepiece with sub-aquatic usage in mind. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDesigned by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003enageur de combat\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e (“combat swimmer”) Captain Bob Maloubier, who sketched it with a pen and paper, the idea was first sent to French watchmaker LIP. But LIP dismissed the idea as a ‘portable clock without any future.’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo it was Blancpain, then — under the influence of Jean-Jacques Fiechter, the brand's new director — that ultimately believed in Maloubier's design and agreed to produce it. The first Fifty Fathoms debuted in 1953, unique among its contemporaries for its 42mm size and bakelite bezel. Fiechter, himself an experienced diver, decreed that the bezel would only rotate one way, thus making it impossible for the diver to misread how much air he had left in his tank. In order to guarantee water-tightness, Fiechter devised a system using rubber gaskets to seal the case. He also chose an automatic winding system rather than a manual one for the movement, because of the undue stress a manual winding system can put on the crown.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eUnderwater explorer and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau was among the first to adopt the Fifty Fathoms, featuring it in his documentary \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLe Monde du Silence\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. Navies of France, Germany, and the United States chose the Fifty Fathoms for their divers. Since then, the model family has blossomed into one of Blancpain’s tentpole collections and constitutes a large part of the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emaison’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e sales. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis particular Fifty-Fathoms, a contemporary Reference 5015-1130-52A, features a 45mm stainless steel case with ‘holey’ lugs, a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, a unidirectional rotating dive bezel with a luminous black sapphire insert, and a glossy black dial with applied ‘dart’ and ‘Arabic’ indices, a matching, stylized ‘sword’ handset.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis piece comes fitted to a signed black rubber-lined canvas strap with a signed steel pin buckle and is powered by Blancpain's Calibre 1315 automatic winding movement with a whopping 120 hours of power reserve.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThis is a premium dive watch offering from one of the most respected watchmakers in the history of horology, and a direct descendant from what was debatably \u003cem\u003ethe very first\u003c\/em\u003e purpose built dive watch ever.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eUnderrated and often overlooked, you simply can’t go wrong with a Fifty Fathoms!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blancpain","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40168690942039,"sku":"40991308","price":8900.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0809\/1255\/files\/AS08354_40991308_40991308_FIFTY-FATHOMSAUTOMATIQUE_5015113052A-6.jpg?v=1682609950","url":"https:\/\/www.analogshift.com\/products\/blancpain-fifty-fathoms-automatique-as08354","provider":"Analog:Shift","version":"1.0","type":"link"}