BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
It almost seems as if Swatch and Blancpain knew that their collaboration piece was going to be one of the most popular articles on our website, as to begin 2024 they’ve released a brand new piece. The Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms Ocean of Storms watch is quite a mouthful, and it looks quite serious compared to the other versions we saw, which are bright and cheerfully coloured.
The dark theme of this new watch does have meaning, however. The pieces originally introduced last year, totalling five, were to mark the five main oceans of our planet: the Arctic and Antarctic oceans, the Atlantic ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. This new one is named for the Ocean of Storms. No, it’s not a newly discovered water body; its Latin name is Oceanus Procellarum, and it’s the largest “sea” on the moon; it spans over two million square kilometres.
Apart from the new black bioceramic case and black-coloured dial, it is the same as the other models. That means it measures 42.3mm x 14.4mm and comes with a NATO strap which is made from recycled netting, the case is water resistant to 91 meters, which is 50 fathoms. The dial is black with a sunburst finish and the same hands and markers as a real Fifty Fathoms, there’s even a date window. I thought the other models were fun and colourful, but this is a bit too on the nose.
At least the automatic SISTEM51 movement is fun. It has a nudibranch (sea slug) on its plastic rotor like the other models, but this one is an ‘Okenia Luna’ nudibranch, which is a real animal that lives in the waters of Peru. The movement has a 3Hz beat rate and a 90-hour power reserve. It also has just 51 pieces and is assembled entirely by machines.
The price difference between this model and a Fifty Fathoms from Blancpain is huge. Those watches cost tens of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms Ocean of Storms costs $400. It’s not going to tempt people into buying the real thing, so I am still left a little perplexed as to why this model exists. Still, for what you get I think it’s hard to do much better at this price point.
