Well, that didn't take long. A mere two-and-a-half weeks after the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms collaboration was announced as Swatch's Bioceramic follow-up to the MoonSwatch, the oldest extant luxury watch brand announced a new iteration of its flagship dive watch that is all at once a throwback to some of its most desired vintage references and unlike any Fifty Fathoms we've ever seen before. Here's why it's the perfect move for the brand.
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3
The name of Blancpain's latest model doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it is a limited release that follows in the tradition of other limited Fifty Fathoms models we've seen in the past. With the brand celebrating the OG dive watch's 70th anniversary in 2023, Blancpain has already rolled out two other limited-edition anniversary models earlier this year: Act 1, which is more like a scaled-down version of the modern Fifty Fathoms in stainless steel, and Act 2, the oversized and feature-packed "Tech Gombessa" in Grade 23 titanium. This anniversary in three "acts" follows a similar formula to the one Blancpain used when it released the 50th Anniversary Fifty Fathoms in three separate "Series" back in 2003.
The new watch takes the bulk of its styling cues from one of the most collectible vintage styles of the Fifty Fathoms, the various "Mil-Spec" references produced as some of the first iterations of the watch. Authentic examples are incredibly rare and expensive, yet the new 70th Anniversary model brings much of their charm into the present day thanks to its working moisture indicator on the dial, vintage Blancpain logo and throwback indices and handset. Where it differs from vintage examples, and from other modern Fifty Fathoms, is in its use of case material, as the 70th Anniversary Act 3 watch is crafted from 9ct Bronze Gold. The watch has also been sized down from the modern Fifty Fathoms' 45mm case size, clocking in instead at 41.3mm — the same size as the brand's original divers from 1953.
The Swatch Connection
Make no mistake: Blancpain rolling out this watch so close to the $400 Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms rollout is no coincidence. Blancpain is not Omega. It's comparatively a tiny brand, lacking the name recognition and marketing budget of its popular Swatch Group stablemate. So after the MoonSwatch became a worldwide sensation that also helped raise the profile of Omega — and resulted in a significant increase in actual Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch sales — Blancpain was clearly hoping to raise its own profile by making itself known to a wider audience by taking part in its own Swatch collab, as not many people outside of watch nerds had ever heard of Blancpain before.
I consider this new Fifty Fathoms to be the first release from the new, more widely-known Blancpain. It's undeniably a great-looking watch, and it even shares a lot of visual characteristics with the Antarctic version of the Scuba Fifty Fathoms, which has the same indices, vintage logo and even the functional moisture indicator on the dial. But Blancpain is pricing the new watch at an eye-popping $32,000 — a whole lot for a mostly bronze watch on a NATO strap — which seems to be the brand coming out to its new wider audience to announce that it sits at a higher rung on the horological ladder than Omega or even Rolex. It's as if Blancpain is saying, "So, you want a real luxury watch? Get a Blancpain."
It remains to be seen if Blancpain's Fifty Fathoms Swatch collab will have the same buoying effect on the brand that the MoonSwatch had on Omega. But if Blancpain manages to quickly sell out all 555 examples of the Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 3 and then follows it up with other releases that play up both the brand's sporty heritage and haute horological cred, then we could very well be seeing the start of another Swatchified luxury watch brand resurgence.
