It all started in 1952 when the first unit of divers of the French navy was created. As there was no watch to meet their requirements, Lieutenant Claude Riffaud and Captain Bob Maloubier designed the right watch. It was then that Blancpain received the commission and its CEO Jean Jacques Fiechter, an amateur diver, launched the first Fifty Fathoms in 1954. Today there are two Fifty Fathom models, the traditional 45mm and the Bathyscaphe. I like both models although my favourite is still the traditional 45mm with its 3 barrel calibre (yes, I said 3!!) and 5 days of power reserve. A great watch!

The watchmaker’s watchmaker. One of the most respected brands for its tradition, quality and calibres. If there is one brand that stands out for its calibres, it is Jaeger-LeCoultre. It is the manufacture that has developed the most in-house calibres. And of all types and complications, it holds records in all categories, from tiny calibres to ultra slim calibres. It is also the house responsible for the famous Audemars Piguet Royal Oak ultra Thin and the Patek Philippe Nautilus 3711.

In its collection we can highlight classic watches such as the Reverso, a watch developed for British officers stationed in India who were looking for a cheap replica watches that would allow them to play Polo without shattering their crystals. For me, my favourite collection of the brand along with the recently relaunched Polaris series. This series, inspired by the legendary Jaeger Polaris diving watch with alarm, recreates its initial style, completing a very varied range in which we find time-only, date and alarm watches. All of them aquatic.

HEUER watches were the benchmark chrono watches of the 1970s. Monaco, Monza, Montreal, Jarama, Silverstone, Kentucky, Daytona, Carrera, Camaro, Autavia… if you didn’t see them in their heyday I recommend a very entertaining afternoon on the Internet looking for them. He was also in 1969 competing to be the first brand to bring out an automatic chrono. On this occasion it was in a consortium with other brands such as Breitling and Buren. Finally, this calibre became the Heuer cal.11, a classic for having the crown at 9 o’clock and the pushers on the other side, we remember it clearly in the Monaco.
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But it wasn’t just Racing watches, towards the end of its life as HEUER it also produced a range of very interesting divers that included versions with the dial entirely in luminescent tritium as well as versions with black pvd.

The quartz crisis was not going to be alien to HEUER, which eventually became Tag HEUER. The story is a curious one, as HEUER was the official timekeeper for F1 and many of the teams bought their timekeepers. At that time the Mclaren team had a shareholder who owned TAG (Technologies D’Avantgarde) an engineering company specialising in turbos and jets among other things, and it was he who bought HEUER and merged the two names. To this day TAG still operates as an engineering company and Tag HEUER still makes watches.

We could highlight many models from this brand, but today I would go for the Carrera or the Monaco. Known to almost every watch enthusiast, it is the quintessential Racing style best replica breitling. Its famous square case has been dressed by none other than Steve McQueen and that’s a lot. From its first version, the Monaco with Calibre 11, one of the 3 famous calibres from 1969, a modular calibre with micro-rotor, to the present day, it has undergone several updates although it has always been modular. But in 2020, the latest version is presented with an integral manufacture caliber, the caliber 02. It still maintains a bicompax aesthetic, although if we look closely it has a third hand at 6 o’clock. It maintains its classic dimensions but has adopted a sapphire crystal and a case back from which to see a real racing engine. A true classic on the racetrack.

A brand for connoisseurs, that’s how I came to know it. It is not a brand with the name of Patek Philippe or Vacheron Constantin, in terms of its wide public awareness, but it comes close. It is one of the leading brands, along with Breguet, of what used to be known as the Swatch Group.

We could start by saying that Blancpain is the oldest watch manufacturing and distribution brand in the world, dating back to 1735. However, it is best known for having been bought, refloated and sold again by one of the key figures of 20th century watchmaking, Jean Claude Biver.

We could talk about its more classic ranges, its complications and perpetual calendars… but the Fifty Fathoms collection is probably more familiar to you. It is considered the first diver’s watch, even before the Rolex Submariner.