BY JOVAN KRSTEVSKI
Blancpain recently added a couple of new members to its Fifty Fathoms family and one of them is the Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition. Inspired by a Blancpain dive watch from the 1970s, this new watch features a Smoked beige dial and pays a tribute to renowned underwater photographer Ernest H. Brooks II’s spectacular dive in Nevada.
A dive watch with a sand-colored dial is quite a rare and unusual sight. And it becomes all the more special if it is backed by a short story which is the case here. The face of the Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert is inspired by the sandy landscape of Nevada’s Death Valley region where famous underwater photographer Ernest H. Brooks II dived back in 1962 to explore the Devil’s Hole, a water-filled cavern in the that stretches down more than 120 meters to photograph the rare Devils Hole pupfish. Presented in beige with a sunburst effect, the dial showcases a nice gradient effect starting with a light brown color at the center and ending with a darker hue of brown on the outer periphery. Polished applied hour markers comprise the hour index, whereas the minutes have been represented using black printed lines and a silver chapter ring that features Arabic numerals with a dash of red at intervals of five. There is a day and a date window at the 3 O’clock position and time can be read easily using the block hour and minute hands along with the red-tipped lollipop style second’s hand.
The case on the Bathyscaphe Desert Edition is made from stainless steel. It measures a modern 43mm in diameter and has a thickness of around 14.2mm. The entire case has been finely brushed, and there is a large threaded crown at 3 to ensure that the watch remains water-resistant to 300 meters. Sitting on top of the case is a uni-directional dive time bezel that features a reddish-brown ceramic insert with liquid metal markings.
Flipping the watch over reveals the Caliber 1315DD that powers the watch. The movement bears an industrial look, operates at a frequency of 4 Hz, and offers a massive power reserve of 120 hours. It comes equipped with a silicon balance wheel for better magnetic resistance and features a real gold rotor with NAC treatment.
The new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Day Date Desert is limited to just 500 pieces and the retail price has been set at USD 12,700. The watch comes attached to a sand-colored Sail canvas strap.
