Blancpain X FATHOMS

In the words of the brand, this is the most extreme watch Blancpain has ever produced. The new watch is a user-friendly high-performance mechanical diving instrument distinguished by all of the features essential for a true dive watch. The new X Fathoms is crafted in ultra-light and highly resistant titanium. It boasts 55,65 mm in diameter and has a helium decompression valve and the unidirectional rotating bezel. Every single detail is inspired by the epic Fifty Fathoms from 1953, a diving watch designed for the frogmen of the French army. The spirit of this model, worn by Cousteau himself, still echoes even through its contemporary reinterpretations

This watch is all about legibility. It uses central hands for all indications except for the retrograde 5-minute counter for decompression stops, which is positioned at 11 o’clock. Minute hand is slightly larger than the hour hand, to make it easier for the wearer to tell them apart. Luminescent material is used only for those indications that really matter while the wearer is diving. There are three different colors of luminescence used for this watch: orange for the 0-90 m scale, blue for the 0-15 m scale, and green for the hour, minute and seconds indications, as well as for the unidirectional rotating bezel.



This self-winding watch uses a caliber 9918B, based on the in-house calibre 1315 fitted with three barrels. It provides no less than five days of power reserve. The same movement has already been used for a number of models in the Fifty fathoms collection, but it is now slightly adjusted with a new baseplate, a silicon balance-spring, as well as a retrograde counter. The date indication has been removed.



When the diver begins a descent the 0-15 m hand starts moving until the diver reaches a depth of 15 meters and then it stops. If the diver continues the descent two other hands will continue to run: 0-90 m scale hand and a retrograde 5-minute counter for decompression stops. During the ascent, the hands are pulled back by a spiral spring and return to 0 when the diver reaches the surface. The maximum depth hand, which measures depths up to 90 meters below the surface, will continue to indicate the maximum depth until the wearer pushes a reset button at 8 o’clock. However, water tightness of this watch tested to 37.5 bar, which means that a wearer can dive even deeper.

The watch is mounted on the most complex injected rubber strap ever conceived by Blancpain, composed of 14 articulated parts. Reference number 5018-1230-64 X-Fathoms



Author: Marina Milojević
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