Back in September Swatch and Blancpain released their first set of collaboration watches, the Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms to mixed success. There was a lot of negative chatter about the piece online but that did little to hurt sales and reportedly the launch had the knock-on effect of increasing sales of actual Blancpain watches as well. Now, Swatch and Blancpain have announced a follow up edition, the new Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Ocean of Storms, which is the most faithful recreation of a Fifty Fathoms yet.
The new watch does sit in series with the original five pieces, by which I mean that like them it too is inspired by a specific ocean and features a depiction of that ocean alongside a nudibranch on its caseback. In a twist, it’s not dedicated to a terrestrial ocean and instead shows an image of the Ocean of Storms, which is a region of the moon. The nudibranch is the Okenia Luna, a grey sea slug that’s a similar colour to the surface of the moon.
On the dial side, the Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Ocean of Storms does everything it possibly can to look like a standard Fifty Fathoms. It has a black unidirectional rotating bezel, a black sunray brushed dial and the characteristic 12/3/6/9 numerals interspersed with triangle indexes. It even has the date window positioned in the same place between 4 and 5. There are a few differences obviously because it features the logos of both brands and the depth rating is only 91m/300ft as opposed to the modern Fifty Fathom’s 300m/1,000ft. 91m is actually the depth equivalent to fifty fathoms, which the original Blancpain was specced to and which gave the model its name.
In terms of structure, the watch has a 42.3mm diameter with a thickness of 14.4mm in bioceramic. Bioceramic, despite its technical sounding name, can simply be described as Swatch’s environmentally friendly plastic. It houses the Swatch SISTEM51 automatic movement, a mass produced calibre with a 90-hour power reserve. It’s one of the more divisive elements of the piece with many collectors questioning its quality, but at the same time it’s a step up from the quartz movement of the MoonSwatch and has the distinction of being mechanical while also being accessible.
The Swatch x Blancpain Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Ocean of Storms is priced at £350 and is available exclusively from select Swatch boutiques. At time of writing those boutiques are listed on Swatch’s website as just the Covent Garden and Edinburgh stores. This is a practice I wish would stop because it feels a little too much like artificial scarcity designed to boost hype to unreasonable levels.
To wrap up, it’s definitely the coolest and most authentic Scuba Fifty Fathoms to date (arguably they should have led with this), much as the Mission to the Moon is one of the coolest MoonSwatches in that it’s a genuine tribute to the original timepiece. And that’s a sentiment that’s being shared online in the hours following its launch, with reception being much more positive than followed the original quintet.
However, the new watch doesn’t address the main criticisms of the previous editions as it features the same chunky plastic case and the same movement. Chalk this one up as another mixed success.
Price and Specs:
More details at Swatch.
