Blancpain

claude.f
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My vintage BP collection. Part 2: Bathyscaphe

In the 1950's, besides the Fifty Fathoms, Blancpain issued a smaller, 34mm diameter, dive watch, called Bathyscaphe. This version was in it's first years of it's release only available with an automatic movement, and was offered for the same price as the big size 41mm version (198 DM) . In 1959 Blancpain starts to offer their Bathyscaphe also with an AS 1187 manual movement. The official nomination for this dive watch was Blancpain Bathyscaphe MC4. It was waterresistant to 60 meters, had an nickel/steel case and costs 137 DM. They got sold in different professional dive shops. This version was very famous in Europe and so the U.S. Waltham Watch Company ordered exactly the same version from Blancpain. They only changed the name on the dial! After +- 7 years, Blancpain stopped the production of the manual Bathyscaphe in 1967, but the automatic version was still available until 1969. These Blancpains are very hard to find now, especially in all original and good condition, because these were professional sports and tool watches and so only very few survived. :-(

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