By Jovan Krstevski
It seems not long ago that ceramic was only used on bezels for diver’s watches but now we can see fully pigmented ceramic cases like on the new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Ocean Commitment II watch that comes in a terrific blue ceramic case. Usually, ceramic cases come in black or white colors because achieving the perfect colored finish for this tough material is usually very hard to achieve. We all know that ceramics are the toughest materials that can be used for watches but their hardness also entails some difficulties like achieving perfect designs no thanks to mixture not cleaning up entirely after the heat treatment process. Well as for me a black ceramic looks good but a blue one knowing how difficult it is to achieve, well sounds better.
Ok so much for colors, what do we really have here? The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Ocean Commitment II sports a 43.60mm x 15.25mm all-blue ceramic case with a water resistance of 300 meters. Its design is outstanding and I like the beautiful construction of its lugs and pushers. Of course, with diver’s watches, we always get the screw-down crown for sealing purposes and for this watch, it’s beautifully implemented. Now you might think that for a 43.60mm case, why is there 23mm lug? I know what you’re thinking, but the new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Ocean Commitment II is quite an unconventional diver’s watch. The drawback of this one is only when you want to use multiple straps, well it really doesn’t matter since the onboard strap is handsomely tough.
Going to the dial, well it comes in grey. Something isn’t right here. The watch is very nice but the combination of colors, well not so much, just my two cents, though. Grey and blue don’t really go together very well plus what happened to the blue dial approach, besides this is a diver’s watch for heaven’s sake. Other than this minor complaint (coughs), the dial is beautifully designed. You’ll soon forget about the above complaint since its readability is superb. The shield-like 12 o’clock hour marker looks interesting and it blends so well with the bezel and nice fat hour and minute hands along with the indices. The minute markers are also very fine and the sub-dials for the chronometers are splendid. The red tipped seconds hand also gracefully adorns the overall appeal of the dial.
What powers the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Ocean Commitment II is the automatic caliber F385 introduced back in 2014. It runs at 5Hz which is considered a high frequency capable of cranking out 50 hours of power reserve. All in all, it powers a 12-hour flyback chronograph, small seconds, and a date function. Behind is a beautiful sapphire crystal caseback that exhibits part of the awesome movement where the 18k gold rotor with the Ocean Commitment logo is proudly displayed.
Note that this watch is limited to only 250 pieces and part of the proceeds goes to Blancpain’s Ocean Commitment project supporting scientific expeditions. As of this writing, the watch is priced at 17,000 USD.
For more info, please visit blancpain.com
