Every other month a newly revived name from watchmaking’s past seems to come back from the dead and their stories usually follow the same beats. A brand from the fifties and sixties made some cool, quirky designs only to meet their demise in the quartz crisis of the seventies. It’s a bio we’re heard time and time again.
With their big, chunky diving watches it would be tempting to label heritage watch brand Blanchet in the same vein. Their timepieces tap into that same cool, utilitarian feel after all. Their timeline however is considerably different.
For one, the brand spreads its historical roots all the way back to the late 1700s with watchmaker Jean Blanchet; for another, their timeline ends in 1914. Rather than any wartime issues though, their end came down to something far more relatable: a fire that destroyed their entire factory. Yep, that’ll definitely do it.
Needless to say, the modern face of Blanchet is a good deal changed from what it was in the brand’s initial lifespan. Gone are the classical, regal styles of the past in favour of Italian-designed performance divers – and as far as we’re concerned it’s a welcome change.
As a newly revived brand, Blanchet only has one watch to its name currently but it’s the kind of watch that makes a statement and the Deep Dive more than lives up to its name. For one, the Deep Dive boasts an impressive 100 bar water resistance. That’s 1,000m, 3,280ft or, in everyday terms, deeper than any sane person would want to go. That’s in good part thanks to the stainless steel monobloc case. After all, if there are no gaps in the case, there’s nowhere for water to get into.
So far, so good, but for us it’s the design that makes the Blanchet Deep Dive a seriously covetable timepiece. The asymmetrical design with its four o’clock crown and integrated crown guard is reminiscent of the Girard-Perregaux Sea Hawk and while the design didn’t work out all that well for the prestige watchmaker, here it’s spot on. In most variants, the watch is completed by an unusually monochromatic black and white unidirectional diving bezel which, with the raw steel or black DLC cases and black dials, makes for a stealthy, militaristic slant.
For a few hundred dollars more you can also net yourself a GMT version, swapping the diving bezel for a 24-hour version using the skeletonised yellow, black and white second time zone hand. It’s only a slight change in look overall, but one that better shows Blanchet’s attention to detail with the unusual numeral font. To finish off the full package, both versions come equipped with COSC-certified automatic movements, either an ETA 2824 or SW 200, so accurate timekeeping is a given, even right down at that 1,000m depth limit.
So what does a funkily designed diver with a specs sheet to play with the big boys set you back? Well, the deep dive starts at $2,650 – around about £1,915 – which isn’t bad at all. In fact, it might well be enough to put Blanchet back on the map where they belong.
For more information, visit Blanchet Watches.
