Pre-Owned Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 'Flyback' Chronograph 42390000871

WHY WE LOVE IT

Alongside the Rolex Submariner and DOXA Sub 300 Series, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms is without question one of the most important dive watch designs in history, and is often credited with being the first purpose-built timepiece with sub-aquatic usage in mind. 

Designed by nageur de combat (“combat swimmer”) Captain Bob Maloubier, who sketched it with a pen and paper, the idea was first sent to French watchmaker LIP. But LIP dismissed the idea as a ‘portable clock without any future.’ 

So it was Blancpain, then — under the influence of Jean-Jacques Fiechter, the brand's new director — that ultimately believed in Maloubier's design and agreed to produce it. The first Fifty Fathoms debuted in 1953, unique among its contemporaries for its 42mm size and bakelite bezel. Fiechter, himself an experienced diver, decreed that the bezel would only rotate one way, thus making it impossible for the diver to misread how much air he had left in his tank. In order to guarantee water-tightness, Fiechter devised a system using rubber gaskets to seal the case. He also chose an automatic winding system rather than a manual one for the movement, because of the undue stress a manual winding system can put on the crown.

Underwater explorer and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau was among the first to adopt the Fifty Fathoms, featuring it in his documentary Le Monde du Silence. Navies of France, Germany, and the United States chose the Fifty Fathoms for their divers. Since then, the model family has blossomed into one of Blancpain’s tentpole collections and constitutes a large part of the maison’s sales. 

The particular Fifty Fathoms we have here is no commonplace dive watch, however — rather, it’s a chronograph model equipped with a unique flyback feature, which allows the wearer to return the chronograph to its ‘zero’ position with a single button click and continue timing an event such as a second lap. 

Dating to the 2010s and housed in a 45mm stainless steel case with ‘holey’ lugs, a sapphire crystal, a signed crown, and a unidirectional rotating dive bezel with a luminous black sapphire insert, it features a glossy black dial with applied ‘dart’ and ‘Arabic’ indices, a matching ‘sword’ handset, a triple-register chronograph with flyback functionality, and a date window. (And of course, there’s plenty of lume to complement all that time spent underwater!)

Powering the watch is the Blancpain Calibre F185 with 37 jewels, 308 components, and a power reserve of 40 hours, while completing the package is a signed nylon and leather strap with a signed, stainless steel push-button deployant clasp.

This is a premium dive watch offering from one of the most respected watchmakers in the history of horology, and a direct descendant from what was debatably the very first purpose built dive watch ever.

Underrated and often overlooked, you simply can’t go wrong with a Fifty Fathoms!

OVERALL CONDITION

Case is in fantastic condition overall showing only faint signs of wear from gentle use. Luminous gloss black dial with applied indices is in as-new condition with matching 'sword' handset. Signed crown.