Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Review
The cure for your Monday morning blues
Blancpain is quite famous for horological innovations especially to the tourbillon complication; a component that offsets the gravitational pull on a watch's movement but their latest move is winning by pulling at the heart strings of not only watch collectors, but oceanographers and professional divers. So grab a loupe! Let's get up close and personal with the Full Review of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback chronograph AKA the "Blancpain Ocean Commitment".
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Review
The shimmering blue sunray dial on the blue Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback chronograph (model # 5200-0240-52a) is probably the first thing to catch the eye but there is something about the brushed black ceramic bezel and case that is simply magnetic. Blancpain filled the bezel with a highly scratch resistant blue ceramic fill and used Liquidmetal® on the bezel's indexes in order for them to bond perfectly to the ceramic material.
Aside from the use of highly scratch-resistant and anticorrosive ceramic materials Blancpain uses an antimagnetic silicon balance spring. These types of features have gained popularity with high-end Swiss watchmakers such as Rolex with their Parachrom Bleu and Omega with their Si 14 silicon balance spring. The use of this material makes the fine spring not only more resistant to shock but to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies found around all electronic devices such as smart phones computer monitors and many more consumer electronics.)
At the heart of this beautiful Blancpain chronograph is the 37 jewel Blancpain Caliber F385 movement. Consisting of 322 parts, this automatic movement has a remarkable power reserve of approximately 50 hours. Another interesting feature is how the chronograph gets reset. Instead of having to stop and restart the stopwatch function, the Flyback function allows the chronograph to be restarted instantly with the simple push of a button. A small second sub-dial is just below the 6 o'clock position and the chronograph's 30-minute counter and 12-hour counter sub dials can be spotted at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions.
Review of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph / Blancpain Ocean Commitment watch
As the manifestation of Blancpain's unshakeable determination to protect and preserve the world's oceans, this watch had to be something special therefore the rotor depicts the Ocean Commitment globe logo. Blancpain had submerged into producing diving watches since the early 1950's with the introduction of their very first diver's watch.
With each of the only 250 limited edition watches sold, 1,000 Euros is donated to organizations committed to the protection and preservation of the world's oceans bringing the total donations generated from just this series to 250,000 euros. The main beneficiaries of the Blancpain Ocean Commitment Bathyscaphe are Laurent Ballesta's Gambessa Projects and the National Geographic Pristine Seas Expeditions. In fact, the limited edition Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback chronograph 43mm and the Blancpain Ocean Commitment is such a big deal that it even comes with its own limited edition and numbered book titled "Fifty Fathoms The Dive and Watch History 1953-2013" Each of these books is numbered to match the serial number of the corresponding watch. Not only would this watch look great on your wrist but the book would look great in your personal library or even on your coffee table!
