Now that the dust has settled from Swatch's second Swatch Group luxury watch collab, a few things have become clear. Firstly, the Blancpain x Swatch Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms did not create quite the world-shifting buzz that the Omega x Swatch Bioceramic MoonSwatch did last year. Still, the Swatchified version of the original professional diver's watch is a hot-ticket item in its own right.
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Bulova Mil Ships Read More -
Tornek-Rayville TR-660 Read More
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Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic Read More
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Squale Montauk Read More
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Baltic Aquascaphe Read More
Available only in select Swatch stores globally, the September launch of the Scuba Fifty Fathoms saw hours-long lines around the world and immediate sellouts. The actual Blancpain Fifty Fathoms has seen a 15 percent price increase on the secondhand market since the Swatch collab, according to Subdial via WatchPro, reversing a year-long skid and indicating that the Swatch version of the luxury diver has had a similar buoying effect that the MoonSwatch had on Omega Speedmaster prices. And, like the MoonSwatch, most people who want to buy one are forced to pay inflated prices on the secondhand market, with most examples going for around $600 on eBay and some fetching closer to $800— an increase of 50 percent over what many considered to be an already-too-high SRP of $400.
So with the challenges of buying a Swatch x Blancpain in mind, I've come up with a half-dozen alternative dive watches that are a bit easier to buy. While they won't say "Blancpain" or "Fifty Fathoms" each of these five watches boasts similar styling to the Blancpain icon, an automatic movement and will almost certainly be more durable and longer-lasting than the Swatch to boot — and they're all priced below $800.
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Best Overall Swatch x Blancpain Alternative: Bulova Mil Ships
- Movement: Miyota 82S0 Automatic
- Diameter: 41mm
- Water Resistance: 200m
The original Blancpain Fifty Fathoms traces its origins to the French Navy's pursuit of a professional dive watch in the early 1950s, and this Bulova has similar roots in that it is a modern recreation of a prototype Bulova produced for the U.S. Navy in 1957. That prototype was meant to be the military branch's first combat dive watch, but Bulova dropped out of contention and never actually made a production version of the watch, making this modern version — which is extremely faithful to the prototype — the first publicly available Mil Ships.
Given its mid-century military diver DNA, it bears a striking resemblance to vintage mil-spec Fifty Fathoms divers, right down to the working moisture indicator on the dial, a feature also seen on the mil-spec-inspired Scuba Fifty Fathoms "Antarctic."
Tornek-Rayville TR-660
- Movement: Seiko NE15 Automatic
- Diameter: 40mm
- Water Resistance: 200m
After Bulova dropped out of that aforementioned race to develop a combat dive watch for the U.S. Navy, another brand stepped in to fill the void and won the contract: Tornek-Rayville. But Tornek-Rayville wasn't a real brand — the watches were re-branded and slightly modified Blancpain Fifty Fathoms divers. The Fifty Fathoms had outperformed all other watches in the Navy's battery of tests, but the Buy American Act of 1933 meant that the Navy would have to purchase USA-made watches if any were in contention.
So a New York-based Blancpain importer and watch dealer named Allen Tornek came up with the idea of putting his own name, along with Rayville, a phonetic anagram of Blancpain's Swiss hometown of Villeret, on the dial and passing the watches off as American. The scheme worked, and Tornek-Rayville divers were on the wrists of the first Navy SEALs. Today's Tornek-Rayville has no direct connection to Allen Tornek or Blancpain, as the rights to the name were purchased by MKII Watches founder Bill Yao, who resurrected the "brand" in recent years with this spiritual successor to the original Blancpain-provided U.S. Military dive watch.
Spinnaker Fleuss Automatic
- Movement: Seiko NH35 Automatic
- Diameter: 43mm
- Water Resistance: 150m
The Fleuss from microbrand Spinnaker has no ties to Blancpain or U.S. Military history. What it does have is some sharp looks that are clearly inspired by modern incarnations of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. This includes the large luminous arabic markers on the dial, along with the lumed-up bezel insert topped with curved mineral glass.
The bezel insert is remarkably similar to the one you'll find on the Scuba Fifty Fathoms, but the rest of the watch sees some considerable upgrades over the Swatch in terms of improved water resistance (150m to 91m), a sapphire crystal over the dial and a more robust automatic movement from Seiko.
Squale Montauk
- Movement: Sellita SW200-1 Automatic
- Diameter: 38mm
- Water Resistance: 300m
Annnd we're back to another watch with ties to Blancpain history. Squale is a Swiss watch brand established in the late 1940s that saw some success as a producer of dive watches in the 1960s and '70s. During this period, the brand also made dive watch cases for other brands — a fairly common practice at the time, as vertical integration was a fairly foreign concept among watch brands during that era — and its most notable customer was Blancpain, which used Squale-made cases for Fifty Fathoms watches for several years.
The Montauk is a modern Squale diver with some Fifty Fathoms-inspired looks not unlike what you'll see on four of the six Blancpain x Swatch Fifty Fathoms, but it's much more impressive as a day-to-day timepiece thanks to its Swiss-made automatic movement from Sellita, its sapphire crystal and its 300m of water resistance.
Baltic Aquascaphe
- Movement: Miyota 9039 Automatic
- Diameter: 39mm
- Water Resistance: 200m
Since its founding in 2017, French microbrand Baltic has wasted no time in establishing itself as one of the most desirable independents on the market. And while the Aquascaphe diver was not the brand's first watch, one could argue — quite easily — that it has become Baltic's signature watch thanks to its mix of an eye-catching, vintage-inspired design with impressive specs and build quality.
The watch's main inspiration, of course, are vintage Fifty Fathoms references, specifically the smaller Bathyscaphe version of Blancpain's diver. The name of the Baltic is an obvious play on the Blancpain, while the smaller case size of 39mm is also true to the essence of the luxury brand's diminutive diver. A fully-lumed sapphire bezel, domed sapphire bezel, Miyota automatic movement and 200m of water resistance round out the spec sheet.
