When Blancpain released the Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm last week in some feminine colourways, they did so with the promise that more models at the 38mm sizing would be coming down the pipeline as well. As it happens, we haven’t had to wait long as five days later we now have the full Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm collection with classic colours and materials ranging from steel and titanium to gold.
We already covered why 38mm matters so much in last week’s article so I’ll just touch on the key points again here. Dive watches are historically very large, due to the constraints of ensuring a high pressure resistance and also creating a legible display – this can be prohibitive to collectors with smaller wrists from being able to wear them. By reducing the size to 38mm the Fifty Fathoms is opened up to an entire new sector of collectors who admire the design but have been too wary to buy one due to the size.
The complete collection now features a blue dial edition in red gold, a blue dial edition in titanium, a black dial edition in steel and the women’s editions we’ve already seen. The new trio bring the classic design codes of the Fifty Fathoms to 38mm with their sunray brushed dials and signature 12/3/6/9 Arabic numeral layout. A faithful recreation of the larger watch just at a smaller size.
Powering the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 38mm is the calibre 1150 automatic. It’s a pretty stellar movement with a huge 100-hour power reserve, which is equivalent to four days (talk about weekend proof). It’s also visible through the sapphire crystal exhibition caseback, allowing you to admire the fine finishing and the characteristic anthracite rotor with gold embellishment. Exhibition casebacks are not always common of dive watches as they can compromise water resistance but that’s not the case here with their 300m rating.
Each watch is available on a range of strap options including tropic rubber, NATO, sail-canvas or bracelet, each of which has their own price. So for simplicity’s sake, the steel model is £14,200 – £16,500, the titanium edition is £15,200 – £17,900 and the red gold is £25,900 – £28,900. Admittedly the price is one of the major barriers to entry for the Fifty Fathoms as the watches you’d consider its rivals like the Rolex Submariner or Omega Seamaster Diver 300M are half or even a third of that price if you can get them at retail. However, with the new 38mm, at least size is not the barrier it once was.
Price and Specs:
More details at Blancpain.
