Blancpain

I keep coming back to my opening statement:

Now, Blancpain gave us essentially exactly that: a Fifty Fathoms with a less elaborate bezel...

… a more basic case and less expensive finishing in the tradition of their own vintage Bathyscape (and in line also some other bona fide military watches...

… but built to withstand the elements as the current one: The Blancpain Bathyscaphe :

But still people were mostly puzzled by what they saw.

I think little of it has directly to do with the watches themselves, but more with the expectations one has developed in respect to a given brand. Blancpain stands for luxury, and and a true and thoroughbred tool watch mist be too disturbing fro some.

Being a scientist I would define one's individual appreciation value A_i for the Bathyscaphe as such:

whereby:

A_i   is the appreciation value of individual i ;

c_i is a constant denominating the value individual i assign to luxurious sports watches

?_i^j is a weight factor an individual i assigns to a given attribute j of a watch

j_k is a given attribute of a watch (e.g. price range, design, complication, …)

?_i denotes a constant capturing the preferences an individual i has regarding Blancpain watches, it is reciprocal to the desire to see Blancpain offering such a watch (i.e. the higher on wishes Blancpain would do, the lower ?_i will be)

JB notes the fact that Blancpain offers the Bathyscaphe; this can be assigned the value 1

Thus, one would agree that the numerator (the term displayed above a line) holds true for any watch since usually the value of ?_i   is ±1 (i.e. a watch is in the usual range of watches offered by a brand), however, with watches such as the Bathyscaphe (i.e. watches that are unusual for a brand or which are really unexpected) the denominator (below the line) becomes any value far below 1 (in this case the one really has a great appreciation for the Bathyscaphe because one really would like Blancpain to offer such a watch (for whatever reason), or vice-versa.

I myself like the Bathyscaphe a lot, and I applaud Blancpain to create exactly this watch. I an not too happy with the straps but this is easily addressed (a fine Barennia would be something, right?). For the me appreciating the Bathyscaphe is a fascinating mental exercise which puts a mirror in front of you to re-examine your desires and your attitude towards a brand.

If one wants to criticise Blancpain then perhaps because the price (?9.000 - 12.000 CHF) is still to high to be called a true tool watch. One would simply not use it as a tool. But quality comes at a price, so such a watch wouldn't come cheap in the first place. Sure, one could cut further corners, but then the watch would not be called 'Blancpain' but 'Omega'...

Thus, I think Blancpain did their homework very well, and I could see one such piece on my wrist without problems. I can't decide which one as the straps - as I mended - are not to my taste. So I would have to try different variations (which I guess would be fun!).

Excellently done, Blancpain, and I am looking forward to get in close contact with this watch soon again!

Cheers and thanks for reading,

Magnus

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- The teams of Swatch Group Germany (Roland & Cintia) and Austria (Karin & Elisabeth) for making this report possible and making arrangements in a most convenient way, 

- my artist friend and neighbour Jakob Kirchmayr for handing me over the control of his atelier for a whole afternoon of shooting, and finally

- my girlfriend Isabelle for being ready to act as wrist model and being indulgent with my wishes!

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