The Blancpain Fifty Is Arguably One of the most famous diving watches in watchmaking, Blancpain's first new model for 2021, Blancpain picked out the most popular historical military watch in the Fifty Fathoms series to reproduce--- Panthoms No Rad Blancpain Fifty-Tom Radiation-Free Replica.
In 1953, when Blancpain was still a small Swiss watchmaker, the manager Jean-Jacques Fiechter was an avid diver who wanted a sports timepiece that he could use for diving. The final fifty Fathoms fifty ton is considered the world's first modern diving watch. One of its features is a very large unidirectional rotating external bezel (Blancpain's patent, which even the Rolex Water Ghost could not use before the patent expired), engraved with a large diamond-shaped indicator, and a minute marker at 15-30-45. The most important use of the dive watch is to time the time of the dive. With this large rotating bezel, the watch can "remember" the beginning of the dive. The large diamond-shaped indicator will go to the position of the minute hand on the watch. From that moment on, the watch-wearing diver can see at a glance how many minutes have passed since he started diving.
Fifty Tons was a great success, and was soon adopted by the French Navy and a few years later by the U.S. Navy. Produced several iterations, the Fifty Toms collection has become a collectible variant, including variants with the "No Radiations" logo:
Early watches used radium as luminous paint on hands and scales, but this radioactive element was later shown to be harmful to health, so it was gradually replaced by Europium or Tritium, and in modern times it was Super-Luminova that was most commonly used. In order to announce to its products that its products no longer use luminescent materials with radium, a special fifty-ton watch launched in the mid-1960s, the model is Fifty Fathoms RPG 1, also known as "BUND No Rad", which is a special watch purchased by the German army and other armies, placing this radiation pattern at 6 o'clock on the face plate, marking a large fork, and writing the word No Radiations.
The Fifty Toms series is the main product of Blancpain, revived in various forms over the past few years, "No Radiations" is a rare watch whose value has exploded in the second-hand market. In 2010, Blancpain launched its first replica of the Fifty Fathoms RPG 1 in a limited edition, based on the 5015B fifty-ton watch, with a diameter of 45 mm and a fully graduated bezel (not just the first 15 minutes), with a painted marker and the "No Radiations" logo at 6 o'clock. Limited edition of 500 pieces, it is accompanied by the in-house calibre Cal.1315.
The new 2021 version has been drastically adjusted in size, the case has become 40.3mm, the case has a significantly different shape from the original model of the 60s of the last century, the old model has no crown guard, narrow tapered lugs... Therefore, for this new model, the goal is not to copy directly, but to capture the spiritual core of the 60s diving watch!
Compared with the 2010 version of the 45mm, the smaller size means that the entire face plate will be more compact, and it is not difficult to find that the new version of the face plate looks denser; on the other hand, the luminous coating from the bezel, the scale to the hands are all presented in beige, which makes the watch closer to the original appearance and brings a strong sense of nostalgia. The most distinctive aspect of the new Fifty-Ton Radiation-Free Replica is the yellow and red "Radiation-Free" logo, which is almost identical to the logo on the vintage original. The old-fashioned model also features a frosted black dial with a diamond marker engraved at 12 o'clock and a white outline of the date window.
Similarly, the hemispherical bezel with a 60-minute scale also pays homage to the earlier Fifty-Ag series, which all have minute markers on the scale to read the elapsed time more precisely. However, in contrast to the fragile bakelite of the prototype, the bezel of the "No Rad" is stamped with sapphire inlays, which is the hallmark of the modern Fifty-Ton watch.
The new model is powered by the self-winding 1151 calibre, made by Frederic Piguet--- now renamed Blancpain, with beautifully decorated Geneva corrugation and polished chamfers on the splint, and an 18k gold rotor coated in black. Equipped with a silicon hairspring and double barrel with an oscillating frequency of 21,600 bph, although this frequency is slightly antique, the extended power reserve is a big benefit, and the watch has an impressive four-day power reserve.
Panthoms No Rad Non-Radiation Replica achieves a tribute to Fifty Byfunctioning the DNA of the modern Fifty-Ag and its predecessors in the '60s, a unique charm of the classic Diver collection, priced at $14,100.
Model: 5008D-1130-B64A
Diameter: 40.3 mm
Thickness: 13.23 mm
Material: Steel
Water resistance: 300 m
Caliber: Cal.1151
Features: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Date
Winding: Automatic
Frequency: 21,600 bph per hour (3 Hz)
Power reserve: 100 hours
Strap: Rubber strap with pin buckle
Limited edition: 500 pieces
Price: $14,100, or CHF 13,200
For more information, visit Blancpain.com.